Pakistan-born Fawad Ahmed is likely to make his full Australia debut over the next month after being named as the specialist spinner in the squad for six one-day and two Twenty20 internationals against England on Thursday.
Following is a factbox on the first Test match between Australia and England, which starts on Thursday:
Australia all-rounder Shane Watson is savouring his second chance at the World Cup after his omission from the side left him convinced he had played his last match at the tournament.
Australia fought back with two late wickets to restrict England to 196 for four and leave the Ashes series-opener in Brisbane delicately poised on Thursday after the tourists' unheralded batsmen threatened to dominate an intriguing first day.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland rejected clarion calls for a formal review and said the game is in "good shape" despite the Test team's fifth successive defeat.
Images from the fourth One-Day International between Australia and India in Canberra, on Wednesday.
The Australia captain is at the top of the Test rankings for almost two years. His batting average of 62.32 is second only to Don Bradman.
Brendon McCullum blasted the fastest Test century to rescue New Zealand before Australia were reduced to 57 for one by the close of day one of the second Test on Saturday.
After edging out Rajasthan Royals in a nail-biting IPL game, Kings XI Punjab captain Virender Sehwag said his side won't rely on luck the next time.
Steven Smith maintained his purple patch to hit a brilliant unbeaten 102 to secure Australia's three-wicket victory against England in a high-scoring tri-series match at Hobart on Friday.
Australia railed at suggestions their team resembled a 'Dad's Army' but the evidence supplied by the first four Ashes Tests against England suggests it was not an unfair moniker.
tung by the defeat in the series opener despite putting up a big score, India will have to plug their bowling loopholes when they take on Australia in the second One-Day International on Friday, fully aware that any slip-up will make their task of bouncing back difficult.
Although Steve Smith was named man of the match after scoring 273 runs it was Australia's rejuvenated pace bowlers who made the biggest statement in their side's brutal mauling of England in the second Ashes Test.
Marcus Stoinis scored his maiden one-day century but it was not enough to give an undermanned Australia an astonishing victory in the opening match of their one-day series against New Zealand at Eden Park on Monday.
Aus all-rounder James Faulkner says that the new Powerplay rule crucial to team's total
Moeen Ali, the England all-rounder, with a batting strike-rate of 82.1 and an economy rate of 4.2, was tops.
West Indies were bowled out for 271 in their first innings after Australia pacer James Pattison ended Darren Bravo's stubborn resistance at tea on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday.
Rohit Sharma struck his second successive hundred of the series but once again the Indians were comfortably outclassed by Australia by seven wickets, in the second One-Day International in Brisbane, on Friday.
Images from Day 1 of the 5th and final opening Test between Australia and England at the SCG in Sydney on Thursday
10 all-rounders who may leave a mark on the World T20.
Glen Maxwell and James Faulkner stitched up a 80-run partnership (off 63 balls) to help Australia beat India by three wickets in the 3rd ODI at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday and clinch the series 3-0.
Dawid Malan hit an unbeaten century to lead England's superb fightback on Day 1 of the third Ashes Test against Australia in Perth on Thursday.
Uncapped pacemen Joel Paris and Scott Boland will make their international debuts for Australia in the first one-day match against India in Perth on Tuesday.
Michael Clarke may just meet the fitness deadline to lead the national team into the World Cup starting February 14, even as many Australia cricket officials are mulling appointing Steven Smith as full-time captain after the 50-over showpiece event.
It will not be the first time that the competition has had to be held outside India.
Australia's cricket board has promised a review of the Ashes debacle after the dead rubber Test at The Oval.
On the pitches of ramshackle football academies across West Africa, teenage boys chase one another in pursuit of the ball, the chance to impress, and the prospect of a lucrative contract with one of Europe's top teams.
England will not go out of their way to bait David Warner, says paceman James Anderson.
Australia edged out Sri Lanka by two wickets to spoil Tillakaratne Dilshan's one-day farewell and go 2-1 up in the five-match series on Sunday. Opting to bat first, Sri Lanka were all out for 226 with four balls remaining, a total built around Dinesh Chandimal's gutsy 102 in an otherwise poor batting display by the hosts in the third match of the series. Dilshan's fluent 42 in his one-day swansong was the second highest score and the former Sri Lanka captain quit the format with 10,290 runs, including 22 centuries from 330 matches.
With Australia wobbling at 76 for four on day two, Smith dragged his side back from the brink over eight-and-a-half hours of gut-busting graft and strode off the Gabba after tea on day three with an unbeaten 141 from 326 balls.
Barring Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, all players have declared their allegiances to IPL franchises over their respective countries' domestic sides ahead of the upcoming Champions League Twenty20.
West Indies have lost their last four Tests, two to Australia and two to Sri Lanka, and have not enjoyed a single win in Australia since the 1996-97 tour.
Australian all-rounder Shane Watson was forced to cut short his training session in the Melbourne Cricket Ground nets after being hit on the helmet by a bouncer on Tuesday, three days before the start of the third Test against India.
Jos Buttler made an unbeaten half-century as England shrugged off Clint McKay's hat-trick to win the fourth one-day international against Australia by three wickets on Saturday to set up a series decider on Monday.
Matt Henry shrugged off the disappointment of missing out on selection for next month's World Twenty20 with a hostile spell of pace bowling that helped New Zealand ease to a 159-run win over Australia in the first one-day international on Wednesday.
A scrappy India will have to lift their game by several notches against an improving Australia when the two fierce rivals clash in a virtual quarter-final cricket match of the ICC World Twenty20, in Mohali, on Sunday.
Australia's bowling coach Craig McDermott has revealed Mitchell Starc's foot injury isn't as bad as first feared and hopes the left-arm pacer will play on Australia's tour of New Zealand.
Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja reduced Australia's victory target to 131 runs with nine wickets in hand at the end of the fourth day of the second Test against New Zealand at Hagley Oval on Tuesday.
James Faulkner scored an unbeaten 69 as Australia scored a thrilling one-wicket victory over England in the second one-day international in Brisbane on Friday.
England, who hold the urn, were dismissed for 233 in their second innings in the opening session of the fifth and final day of the maiden pink ball Ashes Test.
