Mitchell Starc has conceded Cameron Green's absence will change the dynamic of Australia's Test team, hinting pace reserves may be needed to get through the summer.
Green's season-ending back surgery has left Australia's selectors with several questions for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, beyond just who opens the batting with Usman Khawaja.
Namely, the allrounder's absence has the potential to have a flow-on effect for Australia's aging pace attack, with an increased workload likely against India.
Captain Pat Cummins had stated before the start of the summer that Australia were likely to rely heavily on Green and fellow allrounder Mitch Marsh, particularly if India bat for long periods of time.
Starc, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will almost certainly start the summer as three quicks, but Scott Boland, Michael Neser and Sean Abbott all now loom on the fringes.
"It will always change the dynamic when you take a genuine allrounder like a Cameron Green, or with England when you take a Ben Stokes, out," Starc said.
"When you have that genuine allrounder who has been part of a group for a while ... you get into a bit of a routine of having that extra bowling option.
"I don't know what the dynamic of that line-up is going to be, there is a lot of talk around that opening spot and Mitch (Marsh) bowling as well.
"It's not completely foreign. We've had series in the past where we haven't had an allrounder at all.
"We've had to take some of that workload, and Gaz (Nathan Lyon) has probably had to bowl a bit extra as well."
Starc will begin his red-ball summer against Victoria in the Sheffield Shield on Sunday, with Steve Smith and Lyon also playing.
Hazlewood will then play in the Blues' following match against Queensland, with Starc to be rested.
Australia have five Tests in seven weeks against India, with the longest gap being a 10-day break between the series opener in Perth and second Test in Adelaide.
Starc said Australia's bowlers had always taken an extended-squad approach, with several factors coming into whether the first-choice group's workloads were managed.
"That's been the mindset for a number of years now, with overseas tour or a home series and the mentality of how gruelling a summer or series can be," Starc said.
"It's been spoken about, if you have four or five Tests that go four days, the extra day between games (can be important).
"There is obviously a big gap between the first and second Test and the third and fourth Test. That may play a part as well.
"We don't know what wickets we'll get, we don't know how successful or unsuccessful we will be."
Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon played unchanged through the last four-Test Border-Gavaskar series at home in 2020-21.
They also did likewise in the five-Test home summer last season, with Australia losing the last Test at the Gabba on both those occasions.
"There are too many factors to sit here at the start and say this is what is going to happen," Starc said.
"But there are certainly times where you feel the grind of five Tests."
