Shane Watson faces one of the unluckiest chops of the modern era with Andrew Symonds’ X-factor winning the wayward all-rounder an immediate recall to Test cricket.

Australia’s selectors swept Symonds straight back into the XI for the first Test against New Zealand on a Gabba greentop, 11 weeks after he was dumped for going fishing instead of attending a team meeting.

A call will be made between Watson and similarly-deserving rookie off-spinner Jason Krejza for 12th man duties before the toss Thursday morning, with the weather set to decide who plays.

The sun shone for the first time in Brisbane for three days on Wednesday, giving an underprepared pitch some invaluable drying time, and lifting Krejza’s hopes of playing his first Test on home soil.

More rain was forecast for Wednesday night and Thursday morning and skipper Ricky Ponting said he would want to inspect the state of the wicket and overhead conditions before finalising his team.

“They’ll be desperately unlucky, whoever misses out there,” Ponting said. “Krejza took 12 wickets in the last game he played, and at different times through the Indian series Shane Watson was probably our best bowler.”

As the weather continued to clear, the festering over-rates issue also tipped the scales in Krejza’s favour as Ponting pointed out the spinner would better help get through the 90 overs required in the day’s play.

After finally overcoming his prolonged injury woes, Watson was among Australia’s most impressive performers in the 2-0 series loss on the sub-continent, performing with both bat and ball at crucial times.

But Symonds’ Test batting form over the previous 18 months at No.6 and his match-turning talents were viewed as priceless commodities, even though he’s struggled to find form for Queensland this season.

Symonds has just 80 runs at 13 in three Shield games, and his average is single figures at the Gabba, but a defensive Ponting insisted he looked good enough in the indoor nets this week.

He also said it was important to the team the dreadlocked swashbuckler be returned immediately and viewed his return like an “injury-type replacement”.

“He’s a big game player and his record for Australia leading up to him being left out of the side was very good, so I’m excited about having him back in and I’m sure he’ll do a very good job for us,” Ponting said.

“He has got that ability as we know to turn a game pretty quickly as someone like (Adam Gilchrist) did, but he was a very consistent performer for us in that No. 6 role, whether it be last summer, the England series or even in the West Indies.

“He does add a lot to your team — he adds that X-factor, he adds that great presence in the field.”

Ponting has told Symonds, who completed a Cricket Australia rehabilitation program last week, to continue to be his normal self and play his natural game.

“I don’t expect him to be the model citizen,” he said.

While curator Kev Mitchell jnr predicted a fast bowler’s haven, he didn’t believe the toss would be overly crucial with the wicket to be lively through the first three days or more.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Matthew Hayden, Simon Katich, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clarke, Jason Krejza or Shane Watson (12th man to be named).

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (capt), Jamie How, Aaron Redmond, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Flynn, Grant Elliott, Kyle Mills, Iain O’Brien, Chris Martin, Tim Southee (12th man to be named).

© AAP 2012

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