Steve Smith has given hints about Australia's likely XI for the first Test in Bangladesh starting next Sunday, with Ashton Agar firming for the position of second spinner, and Matthew Wade likely to retain the wicket-keeping spot ahead of Peter Handscomb.
Speaking in Darwin on Friday ahead of his squad's departure for the subcontinent, Smith talked down the importance of a two-day tour match scheduled to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday in Fatullah, on the outskirts of Dhaka, with doubt surrounding the suitability of the venue due to the ground being flooded with contaminated water earlier this month.
Smith said uncertainty about the match had led him to place greater importance on this week's three-day intra-squad match, which finished on Wednesday at Darwin's Marrara Oval.
While Smith said the conditions in Dhaka would influence selection, he suggested left-arm spinner Agar was in the box seat to play alongside Nathan Lyon if Australia opt to play two spinners.
Agar took four wickets on the final day of the intra-squad match, having been selected in the touring party ahead of fellow tweakers Jon Holland and Steve O'Keefe. Uncapped leg spinner Mitchell Swepson is the other spinner in Australia's squad.
"I'd say so at this point," Smith said of Agar's chances of being the No.2 spinner.
"I think he's improved a lot the last couple of years. He bowled really well up here this week and he's probably going to get his opportunity first up if that's the way we go."
A handy gloveman, Handscomb said during the week that he'd be happy to be wicketkeeper ahead of Wade if Australia's selectors wanted extra flexibility with their XI. But Smith said Wade was likely to keep his spot despite only making one 50 during the Test series in India earlier this year, meaning Handscomb will likely remain a specialist batsman.
"Matty in India had some good innings without going on to get a big score," Smith said.
"His plans were really good and the way he plays spin and adapts is really good. So I think it'd be great if we could get him to go on and get a big score. I think it'd be really good for his confidence and his keeping would benefit from that as well.
"He's been working really hard. He's obviously got [former Australian wicketkeeper] Brad Haddin on now as fielding coach and someone he can work with really closely and he's going to benefit from that for sure."
Questions also surround the positions of Usman Khawaja - who was overlooked for Shaun Marsh during the India series - and Glenn Maxwell. Khawaja appears to be fighting with Hilton Cartwright for the the No.3 spot, after Marsh missed selection for the Bangladesh tour, while Maxwell will be looking to consolidate his position in the team after a promising tour of India in which he posted his maiden Test century.
Smith said he learnt plenty from the recently concluded memorandum of understanding negotiations between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association, which had placed the Bangladesh tour in jeopardy. But Smith said the relationship between players and management had not been badly affected.
"Not from my point of view," he said. "Obviously we're through the challenging time of the MOU, we've moved on from that now and it probably dragged on a bit longer than we would have liked, but it was great to get a deal done and enable us to tour Bangladesh.
"It's always tough going through those negotiations. Every five years it happens. This one as we said, it dragged out a little bit longer than we would have liked, but it's done and dusted now and it's time to move on with the cricket.
"It was challenging of course. We had to talk with Cricket Australia and the ACA on behalf of the players and things like that, so I was having lots of conversations behind the scenes but it was a break for us from cricket, which was nice, there was no cricket on at the time so it was a challenging process but I think I learned a lot from it as well."
