Eight West Australians are currently involved in the tour of India, Ashton Agar won’t play again until he turns out for the Warwickshire Twenty20 team in winter and Mitch Marsh must get through a fitness test tomorrow before he is cleared to return to action on Sunday.

“Take the best 17 players out of the West Coast team and see how they go,” a WACA official said this week.

The absence of up to 10 first-choice players has done little for WA’s prospects of ending their barren Sheffield Shield run, but it has provided golden opportunities for coach Adam Voges to examine the players he hopes can eventually break that drought.

Aaron Hardie is likely to be the next youngster blooded, with the Willetton all-rounder set to play against South Australia at the WACA Ground after stints as 12th man in Brisbane and Sydney.

And Marsh hopes to be able to bolster the brittle top order after WA succumbed to NSW by an innings and 51 runs at Blacktown Oval this week.

Marsh ran this week and will train at the WACA Ground today after making a steady recovery from surgery to repair damage sustained when he was struck in the groin at training last week.

The Warriors captain has not trained since the incident in the Murdoch University nets, but is confident he will be fit to take on the Redbacks.

Against NSW, WA fielded a team with just 191 games’ experience, yet internationals Cam Bancroft and Joel Paris made strong returns, leg-spinner Liam O’Connor bowled superbly to claim five wickets on debut and opener Sam Whiteman impressed in his first appearance in more than two years.

Bancroft batted for 13 hours for scores of 138 not out and 86 and identified the ruthless mindset required for success as an area for his young teammates to seek improvement.

“They might have only played 10 games or five games but they can have the accountability to try to score 1000 runs a season, or rock up to training trying to be the best player in State cricket,” Bancroft said.

“If they can take that mindset, that accountability and ruthlessness to get the job done no matter what the conditions, that is something we can really improve on.”

Hardie burst on to the national stage in November when he dismissed Indian captain Virat Kohli on the way to taking four wickets for the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra.

He also claimed England captain Joe Root last season.

Swing bowler Daniel Worrall will return for SA in place of injured one-Test quick Chadd Sayers.

Shaun Marsh will join the one-day squad in India after wife Rebecca gave birth to their daughter Mabel Rose this week.