National selector George Bailey on Australian A tour and Sam Konstas' Ashes chances
Konstas headlines the Aus A side set for India next month alongside the likes of Nathan McSweeney, Todd Murphy and Lance Morris.
It will be the teenager's first hit since his difficult tour of the West Indies where he averaged just eight across three Tests.
Konstas' dip in form has left the door ajar for another Sheffield Shield bat-off ahead of the first Test against England in Perth.
While Konstas will play before the important Shield battle, Bailey suspects 'there's some separation' between scores in India and what selectors may feel will succeed back home.
'I think there's some separation there, I don't think the surface of Lucknow is going to be a great read through to what we're going to get across the summer,' he said.
'Whilst we'd be thrilled to see that (Konstas make three tons) — and it's a really important tour for us and we're really interested in the performances of players there — there will be some separation and I do think performing across the start of the summer is going to be important.'
Kurtis Patterson and Jake Weatherald featured in the A series against Sri Lanka A in Darwin last month but were left out of the Indian tour.
Patterson and Weatherald were two of the form batters across the last Shield season and will be looking to pile on further runs early this summer.
Bailey says the start of every Australian domestic season is crucial for Test selection but admits there will be a few he will be watching closely.
'The start of a domestic summer is always critical, given where the Test series always starts there always tends to be three, four, five rounds of Shield cricket,' he said.
'Performances in the early rounds of Shield cricket always puts your name up in lights and always helps your team off to a good start.
'That's critically important and I don't think that will be anything different this year, (but) clearly there will be some players where it's about purely performing and putting as many runs and taking as many wickets as they can.
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