Kurtis Patterson picked in selectors' backflip

Australia's selectors have added Kurtis Patterson to the Test squad at the last possible moment, to face Sri Lanka after his twin centuries in the Hobart tour match made his case undeniable.

Originally omitted from the group to play in Brisbane and Canberra, Patterson churned out unbeaten innings of 157 and 102 at Bellerive Oval before being informed on Sunday night he had been added to the squad and would join Tim Paine's team in Brisbane.

"I feel at the top of my game, hitting the ball as well as I ever have, which makes the addition to the squad really happy for me," Patterson said. "You want to be picked when playing well and I feel I am. Obviously there's some hard work to be done this week, but if I get that opportunity on Thursday I'll be really looking forward to it."

It was 8pm on Sunday evening when the call arrived, which meant an early morning flight to Brisbane on Monday to meet the Test squad for training, little more than 24 hours after it had been indicated there wouldn't be any eleventh-hour additions to squad except for injury. "I had no expectations coming out of that Sri Lanka game that anything would occur," he said. "The call came quite late so the entire day had passed and I was getting ready to pack my bags for Thunder [BBL] training."

Patterson's inclusion means that he along with Joe Burns, Matt Renshaw and Will Pucovski are all vying for two spots in the Australian batting order, fitting in with Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head after Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh were dropped.

Trevor Hohns, the selection chairman, stated that Patterson had done all that was asked of him to earn a late call into the Test squad.

"Kurtis has been pushing his case for selection for some time, he has been a consistent top-order player for New South Wales, was a member of the Australian A tour of India prior to the commencement of our summer, and was most recently selected to compete in the day-night tour match against Sri Lanka in Hobart," Hohns said.

"We have been asking batters around the country to score hundreds if they want to be considered for selection, and given Kurtis' consistent performances for NSW and his two unbeaten centuries in last week's tour match against our upcoming opponent, Sri Lanka, we believe he deserves to be added to the Test squad.

"Kurtis has joined the squad in Brisbane today to commence our preparations for the first Test starting on Thursday."