Marcus North followed Brett Lee into Australia's Test side for Cardiff on Friday night when he crafted a timely century in the four-day tour match against the England Lions at Worcester.
But there is growing concern with opener Phillip Hughes' ability to combat short-pitched bowling after he had no answer to the tactic from Steve Harmison, whose Test stocks have risen significantly this match.
Thanks to an unbeaten 106 from North, who was promoted to No.4, and 70 from Michael Clarke, Australia reached stumps on 4-276.
That was an overall lead of 282 after dismissing the Lions for 352 in the first session.
Australia had been precariously placed on 3-90 after lunch but was steered out of trouble by Clarke and North, who combined for a 170-run stand.
North's innings, the product of more than four and a quarter hours at the crease, not only ensured him the No.6 slot in Cardiff but that he would enter the first Test with confidence and runs under his belt.
That's not to say the runs came easily for North, especially his first 20, but even then he was batting with far more conviction than his previous three innings this tour which yielded scores of one, 11 and one.
No longer was he edging or playing and missing. His defensive shots came off the middle as did some flourishing drives, albeit straight to the field, against the quicks.
Leg-spinner Adil Rashid had him worried early but could not sustain his accuracy.
A pair of late cuts off Tim Bresnan set North on his way and he reached his century after the scheduled stumps time of 6pm.
"I guess there has been a bit of pressure building up in the last three innings," North said on Sky Sports.
"Ricky put me up to No.4 today and it was nice to get out there while the ball was a little bit hard and get some rewards."
"Obviously with a Test match around the corner, and me not performing as well as I would have liked in the previous three innings, it was a pretty important century."
"Hopefully that puts my name in front of the selectors."
The diminutive Hughes, however, will be preparing for a barrage of deliveries aimed at his ribcage after failing to get out of the way of a short ball and gloving Harmison to second slip when on eight.
The dismissal was eerily similar to that of his in the first innings when he fended Harmison to gully.
The tall England quick had also clattered a bouncer onto Hughes' helmet in that innings.
Furthering his case for selection in Cardiff, Harmison, who has match figures of 6-116, claimed the big wicket of Ricky Ponting, who for the second time in the game was caught in the cordon reaching to drive.
Simon Katich made a measured 37 before an excellent piece of fielding from Stephen Moore at short leg brought his demise.
As composed and solid as Katich has been against the new ball, the dogged left-hander will be increasingly frustrated by his inability to turn meaningful starts into match-defining innings.
Clarke, like Katich, has also threatened a big score but with a century within sight he lofted the part-time spin of Vikram Solanki straight to Graham Onions at long-on for 70.
Earlier in the day, Stuart Clark was rewarded for his toil the day before by claiming the final two Lions wickets to fall.
He finished with figures of 2-40 to present selectors with an in-form alternative in Cardiff should they decide to overlook out-of-form spinner Nathan Hauritz.
Australia 1st innings 358
England Lions 1st innings
Denly b Lee 66
Moore c Haddin b Lee 120
Bell lbw b Lee 0
Solanki b Lee 8
Morgan lbw b Lee 4
Davies c Clarke b North 53
Rashid c Hussey b Clark 66
Bresnan b Johnson 5
Mahmood b Lee 0
Harmison not out 7
Onions c Hughes b Clark 8
Extras: 15 (5b, 2lb, 8nb)
Total: 352 (all out, 96 overs)
FOW: 1-172, 2-172, 3-198, 4-209, 5-209, 6-295, 7-315, 8-316, 9-344, 10-352
Bowling
Johnson 26 - 1 - 118 - 1 (6nb)
Lee 27 - 6 - 76 - 6
Clark 16 - 2 - 40 - 2
Hauritz 18 - 1 - 80 - 0
Clarke 4 - 0 - 15 - 0
North 5 - 1 - 16 - 1
Australia 2nd innings
Hughes c Morgan b Harmison 8
Katich c Moore b Rashid 37
Ponting c Rashid b Harmison 15
North not out 106
Clarke c Onions b Solanki 80
Hussey not out 11
Extras: 19 (11b, 7lb, 1nb)
Total: 276 (4 wickets, 73 overs)
FOW: 1-17, 2-41, 3-90, 4-260
Bowling
Onions 15 - 2 - 48 - 0
Harmison 12 - 3 - 36 - 2
Mahmood 14 - 2 - 40 - 0 (1nb)
Bresnan 12 - 4 - 41 - 0
Rashid 16 - 1 - 73 - 1
Solanki 3 - 0 - 15 - 1
Denly 1 - 0 - 4 - 0