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FORMER Australian coach Mickey Arthur believes George Bailey could next month land the Test debut that has been a decade in the making.
Bailey, Australia's stand-in one-day captain, has become a statistical enigma who averaged just 18.28 in the Sheffield Shield competition last year, but has become a 50-over powerhouse for his country.
Bailey's record for Australia in the one-day game is exceptional - 1281 runs at an average of 51.24 at a strike rate of 88.52.
Arthur believes this confidence can flow into the first-class arena to improve a first-class career record (5936 runs at 38.29) which is solid but not spectacular.
There are many precedents for batsman getting a Test call-up on the back of one-day form and Bailey has scored 85, 92 not out and 43 in the current one-day series against India.
Australia has one vacancy in its top order for next month's Gabba Test, at No 6, and Bailey is jostling with a large group of players including Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja and Phillip Hughes.
Arthur revealed Bailey was watched closely by the national selectors last season with a view to taking him on the Ashes tour but his numbers did not warrant selection.
"I would like to see some experience at six,'' Arthur said.
"I would not mind seeing George get a go there. But you want to see guys scoring runs in Shield cricket. I just know the comfort we had when Mike Hussey was going well at No 6.
"We looked at George for the Ashes tour but he averaged 19 in Shield cricket last season, albeit batting in Hobart.
"We want to take an experienced batsman to England and we really looked at David Hussey, Bailey and Adam Voges. Chris Rogers got the nod because he scored three Shield hundreds.
"Voges averaged 25 and Hussey 23 ... had one of them averaged even 35 they could have made it.
"But it would have looked terrible if we had picked a guy for the Ashes who averaged 19 for the domestic season.
"But I am really enjoying watching George bat in the one-day game in India because he has worked very hard and deserves his success.''
Marsh is also in strong early-season form in the Ryobi Cup for Western Australia and received favourable reports from an off-season Australia A tour of South Africa.
Australia's selectors have never lost interest in him despite his torturous run of hamstring injuries and occasional off-field indiscretions and a Test average of 27 from seven matches.
He has long been regarded as among the sweetest timers of the ball in Australia but a first-class average of 35 in a career spanning 13 years is well beneath a pass for a player of such promise.
Australia's bowling line-up for the first Test is likely to see Mitchell Johnson back in the Test XI supporting Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle with Nathan Lyon handling the spinning duties.
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