New South Wales has been dealt a major blow on the eve of its Sheffield Shield clash against Tasmania at the SCG with Test hopeful Brett Lee ruled out with an elbow injury.
Lee aggravated his troublesome right elbow in his side's Ford Ranger Cup loss to the Tigers on Sunday, robbing him of the chance to impress national selectors ahead of the first Test against the West Indies starting in Brisbane on November 26.
The 33-year-old will seek advice on the next course of action on Monday afternoon but it is now highly unlikely he will force his way into Ricky Ponting's side for the Brisbane Test.
The Blues will still field a powerhouse line-up featuring seven Australian representatives, including Michael Clarke in his return match from a back injury, while highly-touted rookie paceman Josh Hazlewood is in line to make his Sheffield Shield debut.
Doug Bollinger is a definite starter after returning from a successful one-day series against India, as is opening batsman Phil Hughes who was cleared of a suspected broken finger on Sunday, while Nathan Bracken has been ordered to sit out the clash after a hectic international schedule.
For the Tigers, off-spinner Jason Krejza is the only player with Test experience making it difficult to foresee anything but a comprehensive victory for the Blues at the end of four days.
The absence of wicketkeeper Tim Paine with a broken finger sustained playing for the Australian one-day side compounds matters for the visitors with the Tasmanian vice-captain expected to return early next month.
But while his charges are clearly outgunned on paper, Tigers coach Tim Coyle is hopeful the lure of Test selection will prove a distraction for several NSW players, allowing his unheralded line-up to sneak under their guard.
"We as a team have a lot more to prove than some of their guys who have probably got their eyes on Test matches and things like that," Coyle said.
"We don't have people in that situation so what we do is go in and prepare as well as we can as a team and we've focused a lot of our talk about us just being a better team on the day."
Despite his optimism, Coyle says his men are far from the finished product in the four-day game admitting they have the job ahead of them this week.
"We've got a very young team and we've got a keeper who's 21 (Brady Jones)and an opening batter who's 20 (Jonathan Wells) ... so we're probably trying to develop a new four-day team and it's that evolution of a cricket team that takes time," Coyle said.
"It's certainly taken us a bit of time but we want to play better and we're certainly looking forward to the challenge at the SCG."
But while admitting balancing players' individual aspirations and team success is an ongoing challenge, Blues coach Matthew Mott remains confident his side can kick-start its campaign against Tasmania after a rain-interrupted opening match against Western Australia.
"It's definitely something over the past few years that we've tried to get the balance right," Mott said.
"We realise we've got a lot of Australian players and this is their vehicle to get back into form and you have to come to terms with that."
"It does put up different challenges but we're used to that challenge."
NSW
Simon Katich (captain), Phillip Hughes, Phil Jaques, Michael Clarke, Usman Khawaja, Brad Haddin, Steven Smith, Steve O'Keefe, Stuart Clark, Josh Hazlewood, Burt Cockley, Doug Bollinger
Tasmania
George Bailey (captain), Travis Birt, Luke Butterworth, Ed Cowan, Brendan Drew, Alex Doolan, Brett Geeves, Brady Jones, Jason Krejza, Tim Macdonald, Dan Marsh, Jonathan Wells