The cause of all the commotion? Doug Bollinger is likely to be wiped out of the second Test by injury and so one of the greenhorns might be receiving a Test debut from Saturday.
George is favourite to get his hands on a baggy green if Bollinger, diagnosed with an abdominal tear, is ruled out.
The 203cm George, who will be 24 on October 16, is the favourite to get his baggy green if Bollinger, diagnosed with an abdominal tear, does not play.
Starc and Pattinson, who only earned their places on the tour when Josh Hazlewood came down with a back injury, are breathing down his neck. The other option is to play leg-spinning allrounder Steve Smith.
"The intensity of the net sessions is obviously is as close as you could get to a match situation. Pattinson reminds me of a (Peter) Siddle - he's like a Siddle clone, really. He just wants to charge in all day and he can swing the ball.
"Starc can swing the ball, too. He has the variety of a left-hander, which also creates rough for Nathan Hauritz to work with. Peter George has so much height. He's got a lot of bounce.
"We'll probably have to go with a bit of a gut feel. Ricky will probably have to be guided by the selectors because I'm sure he hasn't seen a lot of those guys.
"We're still hopeful Dougie might come up but it would be a big gamble."
We play so much cricket these days that keeping your body and especially your mind in good shape is pretty hard to do," Ponting said.
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