With no tour match in New Zealand the Sheffield Shield match between Victoria and Tasmania at the MCG looms as the key audition for Siddle, Pattinson and fellow Test squad member Jackson Bird.

For Siddle and Pattinson the match, starting on Wednesday, is effectively a fitness test, and could threaten their involvement in the two-match tour if it does not go to plan.

The fourth bowler who will vie for one of the two available bowling positions, Chadd Sayers, will mount his case at Adelaide Oval, for South Australia against Queensland.

Siddle has not played since the Boxing Day Test due to an ankle injury. Pattinson has been sidelined since the New Year's Test due to a shin injury.

Siddle is optimistic he has recovered but conceded he will not know until he has had the chance to test it against the Tigers this week.

"I'll have to get into some high-intensity work in a match environment and see how it handles it," he said on Tuesday. "I haven't felt anything in training, so I'm positive I'll get through this game, push on over to New Zealand and be right from there."

Pattinson was scheduled to return late in the Big Bash League but that plan was shelved to due to the lingering shin injury.

Siddle will captain the Bushrangers, with Matthew Wade on national-team duty in the one-dayers in New Zealand. He is not expecting either he or Pattinson will be subject to workload restrictions in the match.

While conditions at the MCG are expected to favour batsmen their Test selection rival Bird boasts a fine record there. Across the right-armer's three red-ball matches - two Shield, one Test - he has taken 18 wickets at an average of 13.17.

Siddle is expecting conditions in Wellington and Christchurch to favour bowlers.

"Looking at them, their best chance is to back their bowlers to try and out-bowl us ... so that's something I think they'll go with," he said. "I think conditions could be similar to Adelaide: English conditions. That would come into my favour a little bit. That's the conditions I like."

Victoria will have at least one debutant: Sam Harper, who at 19 will overtake Michael Dimattina as the youngest wicketkeeper to represent the Bushrangers in the Shield. Coach David Saker predicted Harper, who last month made a century while captaining Australia's under-19 team in Dubai, would become "a future champion for the state".

"With all the numbers he's put up [you] might not think he would be picked, but we've got a gut feel down the track he'll be a perfect player for us," Saker said of Harper.

The other potential debutant is Ian Holland, a 25-year-old all-rounder who was last season's best player in Premier Cricket.

Even though the Bushrangers are missing five established players to either national duty or injury they are confident of beating Tasmania, who have lost nine of their past 10 matches in the shield stretching back to last season.

"We dearly want to win it - and with the team we're putting on the park we think we will win it," Saker said of the first-versus-last match.

The Tigers have recalled Alex Doolan, who was dropped before the Big Bash League break, to captain in the absence of George Bailey. They also dropped veteran Xavier Doherty, in order to give more opportunity to fellow left-arm spinner Clive Rose, and have bypassed Tim Paine despite his encouraging Big Bash League form. Ben McDermott is, like Rose, a beneficiary of Tasmania wanting to prioritise giving experience to young players given the team's poor results.

The Tigers are unbeaten in their past four matches at the MCG. The Bushrangers last beat them in 2009-10.

VICTORIA (from): Peter Siddle (c), Fawad Ahmed, Dan Christian, Travis Dean, Peter Handscomb, Sam Harper, Ian Holland, James Pattinson, Rob Quiney, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Tremain, Cameron White.

TASMANIA (from): Alex Doolan (c), Jackson Bird, Jake Doran, Ben Dunk, Andrew Fekete, Hamish Kingston, Ben McDermott, Sam Rainbird, Clive Rose, Jordan Silk, Tom Triffitt, Beau Webster