Cricket Australia set to shift captaincy tradition for Prime Minister's XI at Manuka Oval

Back after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister's XI will now be a four-day, day-night match against the West Indies.

With that radical change of format, the trend in the last decade of selecting a recently-retired Australian star to captain the team may be put to bed.

After being unveiled as the Prime Minister's XI coach, current men's team assistant Andre Borovec was tight-lipped on what he'd like the invitational squad to look like, including the captaincy.

"It's up to George [Bailey], but it depends what the selectors want to see at the time," Borovec said.

"The uniqueness of the fixture with the pink ball and being a four-day match, I think that'll be an important part of the decision.

"The timing is just a really important part of the season, for some to maintain form, or for some to regain form too. And for other players they can put their name up in lights."

Bailey, a former Prime Minister's XI captain himself, is now the chief selector for the Australian men's cricket team.

The fixture usually attracts a fascinating mix of current stars knocking on the door of national team selection, and up-and-comers given their first taste of international cricket.

For players like Cameron Green, who was left out of the Twenty20 World Cup squad, selection in the Prime Minister's XI could be a golden chance to stake his claim for a late call-up.

Fellow promising youngsters like Will Pucovski and former Comet Henry Hunt are also in with a shot for selection, while veterans like Marcus Harris and Tim Paine would not be surprise inclusions either.

ACT Meteors coach Jono Dean will be Borovec's assistant for the Prime Minister's XI, but Cricket ACT chief executive Olivia Thornton suggested there have been conversations about including more Canberra flavour to the squad.

"We want the best team to play the West Indies and there could potentially be connections to Canberra," she said.

"The Henry Hunts of the world, that have spent a lot of time in Canberra for instance... but there are opportunities for the 13th [man] running drinks and anytime we can connect our pathways, we'd be silly not to tap into that."

"It'd be great to see some link to ACT Cricket in some way, either in the team itself or in the periphery," Borovec added.

Borovec said his approach will be more "facilitation" than implementing any certain style of play in the match, allowing players to make the most of the updated format and attract the eyes of selectors.

"This game, with this ball, with this duration, we don't get a lot of chances to experiment and expose players to those conditions," he said.

"That's the importance of it. The Adelaide Test has been an example of that over the years of how unique the situation or the conditions can be sometimes."

Borovec also welcomed co-selector Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to take a hands-on role with the team, running drinks as his predecessor Scott Morrison did.

"We look forward to having him in and around the team," the coach said.

"Anthony is more than welcome, and he can throw some balls if he wants."

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