Hodge likely to open for Victoria

Brad Hodge, the Victoria right-hand batsman, could open the batting for Victoria's one-day side in the coming season. John MacWhirter, the chairman of selectors for Victoria, said that though it was difficult to disrupt the opening combination of Michael Klinger and Jon Moss, letting Hodge open remained a possibility.

"We've discussed all possible options, because we haven't got to a final in the one-day competition for a while and we're looking at ways of doing that," MacWhirter told The Age. "One of the options could be for Brad to open, but that certainly hasn't been finalised."

Hodge played three ING Cup matches last season - being busy with national duty for the most part - with a strike-rate of over 71. His overall domestic one-day average is 38.33 with a top score of 164. On their part, Klinger and Moss played ten matches each last season with strike-rates of over 79 and 91 respectively.

Hodge wasn't part of Australia's victorious DLF Cup campaign in Malaysia and he has also been left out of the Champions Trophy squad. "We want to give our players every opportunity of playing for Australia, that's one of our main missions combined with the fact we're just looking to get whatever edge we can in winning games," said MacWhirter.