Peter Handscomb played himself out of Australia's Test XI for the Melbourne game with scores of 34 and 14 in Adelaide, and 7 and 13 in Perth. Such is the system currently that the Sheffield Shield first-class competition has temporarily been kept in abeyance in deference to the Big Bash League, so there is no scope for players to return to Shield cricket to brush up their red-ball skills.

Instead, turning up in the BBL for Melbourne Stars against Sydney Sixers at the SCG during the Boxing Day Test, Handscomb pressed his case with a 35-ball 70. That knock, his reputation as a top player of spin bowling, and Mitchell Marsh's continued failures, brought the 27-year-old back into the side for the final match of the four-Test series. While he didn't exactly set the SCG on fire, he did make a patient 37 before becoming Jasprit Bumrah's 21st victim of the series, chopping the ball on to his stumps off the pad on the truncated fourth day yesterday.