Australia A: Marcus Harris makes a play for a Test spot with 74 in last chance looms in India A tour match

The race to open the batting for Australia is not finished yet, with Victorian Marcus Harris making a late play for the spot.

Harris made 74 of Australia A’s 223 on the second day of their tour match against India A at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.

South Australian captain Nathan McSweeney was the clear frontrunner before the match — which serves as the final audition for contenders — but Harris’ score will give selectors something fresh to think about.

It came after McSweeney made 14 and both Cam Bancroft and Sam Konstas failed in the first innings, closing the door on their Test hopes.

Selectors have given candidates until the end of this match to stake their claim, leaving them just the second innings at the weekend to lunge for the line.

A spicy MCG wicket troubled batters on day two and India A limped to stumps at 5-73. The visitors lead by 11 runs and are likely to only leave Australia’s batters a small chase.

Asked if he had done enough to win the spot in the Test side, Harris replied “I don’t know, it’s a good question”.

“Externally obviously this game was getting built up a lot, which is fair enough. I feel like I have been batting well, but so have lots of other people,” he said.

“If I get called upon I feel like I am ready to go and if I don’t then sobeit.”

Harris said he feels he is more prepared to play Test cricket this summer than he would have been last season, when David Warner retired from the format and Steve Smith was instead elevated to open.

“I feel pretty well equipped. Maybe if I was in this position 12 months ago I probably wouldn’t have been able to perform the way I have at the start of this season, my results last year probably said that,” he said.

“I am proud of that, so I feel like if I get called upon I’m ready to go.”

The West Aussie-turned-Victorian made his Test debut in 2018 and has hovered around squads since. The most-capped of the four contenders to play in the side, Harris denied the spotlight felt any brighter now than in previous summers.

“No, honestly, it hasn’t,” he said.

“This time I have probably embraced it a little bit more than I have in the past. I have probably tried to avoid it and that sort of builds it up a bit more. Whereas this time I have probably just taken it as it has come at me and accepted it for what it is.”

Harris also joked with reporters he could “probably write all the articles that are going to get written in the next couple of weeks”.

“None of the stuff that comes out is surprising. The more times you go through this sort of stuff you get used to it and more equipped to deal with it. I am probably just more experienced at it,” he said.

He said the only conversations he has had with selection chair George Bailey centered around the batting order for this match.

West Australian off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli, making his Australia A debut and playing at the MCG for the first time, made quite the impression with a wild 35 off 28 balls, another sharp catch at gully and the bizarre wicket of KL Rahul.

The Indian Test regular, who was parachuted into this match ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, tried to leave a ball Rocchiccioli spun through his legs and was bowled.

As part of his late flurry from No.10, Rocchiccioli tried to drive a bouncer that flicked off the face of the bat and flew over the slips for four. Harris joked it was “probably the best shot I have ever seen”.

Queensland quick Michael Neser was sent for scans on his left hamstring after an injury on Thursday and did not take the field.