Cricket: Australia to name changed squad to play NZ

The Australian selectors have tough decisions to make. Photo / Getty

Australia's new-look Test squad for the three-Test home series against New Zealand is set to be quite different from that chosen for the scrapped tour to Bangladesh, admits selector Mark Waugh.

The expected return of rested stars David Warner, Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood plus the different playing conditions will mean there's no room for a number of the squad chosen for the Bangladesh tour, which was postponed indefinitely due to security fears.

A number of positions are up for grabs for the NZ series starting in Brisbane on November in the wake of the unsuccessful Ashes tour and the recent retirements of Test stalwarts Michael Clarke, Michael Rogers, Brad Haddin, Shane Watson and Ryan Harris.

But players who'd hoped to further their claims in Bangladesh like batsmen Cameron Bancroft and Joe Burns, spinner Stephen O'Keefe, paceman Andrew Fekete and allrounders James Faulkner and Glenn Maxwell must now fight to stay in the reckoning on home soil.

"The squad from Bangladesh, it's going to look different for New Zealand," said Waugh on Monday as the interstate one-day cup competition got underway in Sydney with the Test hopefuls in action.

"There is no doubt about it because you didn't have (David) Warner, (Josh) Hazlewood and (Mitchell) Johnson, so there's three players straight away you'd imagine would come back into the reckoning for the first Test.

"And also different conditions, you're not going to have two spinners at the Gabba in the first Test."

Uncapped Tasmania paceman Fekete is likely to be one of the casualties despite taking 4-30 against Queensland on Monday.

"There's going to be some guys picked for that tour who are probably going to get shuffled back down the order a little bit, but you can't do anything about it," Waugh said.

"He (Fekete) is certainly not out of the equation of playing Test cricket in Australia, particularly with fast bowlers, they tend to get injuries, and he's around the mark that's for sure."

Waugh believed the loss of the two-Test tour of Bangladesh would not have a major impact on preparation for the New Zealand series and the rest of the international summer.

It meant Australia's representatives have the rare opportunity to play three weeks of domestic one-day cricket in the Matador Cup.

They will then feature in just a single first-class match prior to the first Test against the Kiwis.

"You don't have a lot of red-ball cricket, but there's still a lot of cricket to be played," said Waugh.

"Whether that's better than going to Bangladesh in foreign conditions, and whether that's a better warm-up is perhaps questionable.

"But players are used to swapping and changing formats, so whilst it's probably not ideal we didn't play the two Tests in Bangladesh it also gives a chance for some players to freshen up."

-AAP