Monday, 15 April 2019:
 | | CAMERON BANCROFT of Australia celebrates with the Ashes Urn in the change room during the Fifth Test match in the 2017/18 Ashes Series between Australia and England at SCG in Sydney, Australia. | |
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Marcus Harris appears in the box seat to open in the Ashes but selectors will have the chance to look at 16 hopefuls in England before settling on Australia's batting line up.
Selectors on Monday revealed their squads for the one-day and four-day Australia A tours of England, but opted to leave the majority of county players with their clubs in the lead up to the Ashes.
In all, 16 Australian batsmen will be given their chance to press their claims for Ashes berths, across the one-day World Cup, County cricket and Australia A games.
Cameron Bancroft will be forced to do it the hard way while still captaining Duhram, while Matt Renshaw (Somerset) and incumbents Joe Burns (Lancashire) and Marnus Labuschagne (Glamorgan) will also stay in the County Championship.
Harris - who is favoured to partner David Warner in the Ashes - is then the only opener in the Australia A squad, where Kurtis Patterson, Will Pucovski, Travis Head, Peter Handscomb and Mitch Marsh will all fight for Ashes spots.
Matthew Wade has also been given a shot at returning to the Test team through the Australia A squad after controversially missing national selection this summer.
Warner, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Marcus Stoinis and Shaun Marsh will then also feature in the World Cup that runs concurrently.
From that, selectors will then announce Australian and Australia A squads to play in a tour match beginning July 23 in Hampshire, before the final Ashes squad is announced following that and just days before the first Test.
"We made it well known to everybody around the country that we may leave players who have county contracts playing county cricket," chief selector Trevor Hohns said.
"That will not affect their chances of being chosen in the Ashes squad or the Australia-Australia A game. That's been very made clear to them."
The Australia A sides will play five one-dayers against England county teams in June and July, while the four-day squad then faces Sussex and the England Lions.
Australia's bowling line-up for the Ashes is far clearer, with Josh Hazlewood left to return from a back injury in the A squads.
James Pattinson also looks to be in the mix after being pulled from his county side Nottingham to play for Australia A, where he will be joined by Jackson Bird and Chris Tremain.
Meanwhile Australia's frontline bowlers of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson and Nathan Lyon will all play in the World Cup.
AUSTRALIA A FOUR-DAY SQUAD: Tim Paine (capt), Marcus Harris, Kurtis Patterson, Will Pucovski, Travis Head, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Mitch Marsh, Michael Neser, Jon Holland, James Pattinson, Jackson Bird, Josh Hazlewood (vc), Chris Tremain.
AUSTRALIA A ONE-DAY SQUAD Travis Head (capt), Matthew Wade, Will Pucovski, Peter Handscomb, Ashton Turner, Mitch Marsh, D'Arcy Short, Kurtis Patterson, Ashton Agar, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood (vc), Kane Richardson, Sean Abbott.
