Warner's thumb still broken

David Warner's thumb is still broken, leaving Australia's vice-captain to fight an increasingly fraught battle to be fit in time for the first Test of the summer against New Zealand in Brisbane.

While Warner is going in for another round of x-rays at the end of this week and is hoping to have his first bat in the nets on Monday, he has admitted it will take some time after that before he regains confidence in the digit when catching and fielding. He will not be taking part in the remainder of the Matador Cup and will thus have only one match - a day/night Sheffield Shield encounter with South Australia in Adelaide - before the Gabba.

"My goal is to play that Shield game, I want to play that Shield game to have a hit, because I don't think I'll be able to get out here and play the last couple of games of the Matador," Warner said of an injury sustained during the ODIs against England after the loss of the Ashes.

"Eight years on the road playing a lot of cricket, you don't lose that overnight. This four- to six-week break has mentally freshened me up and I think it's going to put me in good stead for the summer. You're only ever one or two hits in the nets, probably an hour off what you can be. But batting against bowlers is going to be the key.

"I think when it comes down to having to catch a ball I'll be a little bit hesitant, but I've broken this before and I know exactly what I have to do, that's about getting it right with the bat first and then fielding and catching after."

The state of Warner's thumb is an unwanted complication for the national selectors as they deliberate over who will be his next long-term opening partner following the retirement of Chris Rogers. Joe Burns, Shaun Marsh, Cameron Bancroft and Usman Khawaja are all in the mix as top-order players, and Warner said he would need time to familiarise himself with his new offsider.

"Any new person who comes into the team you've got to form a partnership, whether it's my opening partner or a new guy in the team, you've got to try and work out how to go about things," Warner said. "If it's a batsman you've got to try and identify their game plan and what they're trying to achieve.

"Whoever it is I've got to look at some of their footage and how they play as well, because I like to know my partner. We talk about first session of a game, where he can get off strike and how I can help him in any way. I've got to look at that and identify the partner I'm with to try to get the best out to them and for my own peace of mind."

In contrast to earlier summers where the Test team was announced too early for some, the selectors are set to name their squad for the Gabba during the one round of Shield games that precedes the Test, only a handful of days before Steven Smith tosses the coin with Brendon McCullum in Brisbane. Warner said he did not expect the "privilege" of knowing who his partner would be ahead of that time.

An array of new faces had time to get to know one another as rain curtailed the first session of Australia's two-day training camp at Hurstville Oval, and Warner said he was confident there would be enough older heads among the tyros to ensure good decisions were made on and off the field when the New Zealand Tests began.

"There's going to be a lack of experience there, but the guys we've got there who've been through the Ashes, there's a lot of experience there," Warner said. "You've got Adam Voges who was selected for the Bangladesh tour that didn't go ahead. He's played a lot of first-class games, might not have played many Test matches but a lot of experience there.

"Guys like Mitchell Starc, myself, Steve Smith there, Peter Nevill is an experienced man in Shield cricket. A lot of the guys who are going to be picked aren't too experienced, but there's a lot of guys there to help them along the way.

"My job away from game day is to help Steve out as much as possible, I can go around and help all the guys, I know Steve likes to go around and check on each individual, see where they're at with their game, and I'm just going to try to make Steve's job as easy as possible."