Mitchell Marsh's form with the bat has been described as "exceptional" by national coach and selector Darren Lehmann as the all-rounder closes in on a Test recall.
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But despite Marsh's improvement with the bat he only came back into Test consideration just over a fortnight ago when he made an earlier-than-expected return to the bowling crease.
Marsh's fate, and that of incumbent No.5 Peter Handscomb, hinges on the state of the WACA wicket. In its heyday it was a fearsome sight for batsmen due to its lightning pace and bounce, but it has produced six scores in excess of 300 in its last two Shield matches.
The possibility of a flat track means Marsh, who averages 22 with the bat at Test level, is firmly in the frame to come in and bat at six. His other job would be to provide a fourth seam option for captain Steve Smith, whose prime weapon is his pace attack of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins.
"The wicket will determine that. We'll have a look and make sure everyone's pulled up alright and how the bowlers are and then make a call from there. But that gives us options in the XI," Lehmann said.
"They said it's going to have some pace and bounce in it, a bit like the old WACA. Again, we'll just have to wait and see. It's pretty hot this week so we'll have a better idea probably on Tuesday/Wednesday of what we're going to go with."
While Lehmann said Australia would not protect their prized pace trio, selectors would be kicking themselves if one of their quicks was to break down after being overburdened in Perth.
"We just want to have the ability to get 20 wickets. So if the three and Nathan [Lyon] can do that so be it. If we decide to go with an extra one it would be for that reason," Lehmann said.
"You'd love to be be able to make them available for all Test matches and all one-dayers. End of the day we just don't know how they're going to travel. At the moment our focus is just this game, so we can't look too far ahead or behind."
Lehmann praised Mitchell Marsh's efforts with the bat this summer after averaging 45 across the first five games for Western Australia.
"We've got all the reports back and JL [WA coach Justin Langer] has been really impressed with him," Lehmann said.
"He's surprised by bowling a couple of games ago, he surprised us as well to be perfectly honest. His batting has been exceptional all summer and he's led from the front as captain. He deserves his chance.
"As a batter he was in some good form. But we needed his bowling as well. Now he's bowling, we can consider him."
