Australia have dual selection headaches on the eve of Sunday’s first limited overs match against India at Vadodara.

Apart for the obligatory sight of captain Ricky Ponting walking out at No.3, the shape of the batting order is up for debate.

Tim Paine, Shaun Marsh and Shane Watson are all vying for the top two spots after Mitchell Johnson added to the logjam by stating he too would like to open in one-day cricket.

Callum Ferguson’s cruel loss to a knee reconstruction also leaves a tantalizing hole in the middle of the order that Adam Voges or a demoted Paine may yet fill.

Then there is the matter of what to do with the squad’s three New South Welshmen, who join the team on Saturday after the Blues’ victory over Trinidad & Tobago in the Twenty20 Champions League final on Saturday (AEDT).

Brett Lee was named man of that match and for the series, and will be keen for a start to maintain the form he has shown since recovering from an the injury he picked up on the Ashes tour.

Nathan Hauritz and Doug Bollinger are the other Blues fighting fatigue before the seven-match one-day series has even begun, although they will benefit from the extra subcontinental games prior to a tour.

Australian coach Tim Nielsen is conscious of not exhausting his group ahead of a long summer, meaning Lee and Hauritz in particular must prove their energy levels are still high before being thrown in against the Indians.

“Just because of the turnaround and the time between games we’ll have to really manage them, and make sure we’re careful,” Nielsen said.

“It’s about knowing that we have the depth of talent there to ensure if we do find players are tired or sore or have niggles, that we don’t find ourselves short of players and having to use the ones that are sore and hurt them for a long-term injury.”

Watson and Paine will be favoured to maintain the partnership that was so promising in the Champions Trophy.

The young Tasmanian will be looking to feed off Watson’s experience of batting in India for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League and on last year’s ill-fated Test tour.

Marsh however is strongly in the mix for the longer term, with a World Cup 18 months away.

“We had (Brad) Haddin and Watto doing well with the bat in Dubai and since Brad’s been injured Paine has come in and done a good job at the top of the order,” Nielsen said.

“It’s good to have Shaun back, he hurt his hamstring badly and it was the second time he did it so we were very careful about the way he’s been brought back in and how quickly he came back into playing.

“We’ve got 18 months to a World Cup and see Shaun Marsh as being one of those players who if they continue to develop and improve they could play a pretty important role for us.”

Squads

India: MS Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Tim Paine, Shane Watson, Michael Hussey, Adam Voges, Cameron White, Shaun Marsh, James Hopes, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Jon Holland, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger.

© AAP 2012

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