Hardie has been sidelined since facing Tasmania in Hobart in mid-February where he suffered a minor calf injury. He had been due to join Australia's T20I squad in New Zealand.

Agar has also slipped down Australia's white-ball hierarchy having been ruled out of the ODI World Cup through injury. He has not played an international since the tour of South Africa in early September where he suffered a recurrence of a calf problem. He may yet come back into contention for the T20 World Cup.

There remains a slim chance that WA could still host the Shield final in Perth if Tasmania lose to South Australia and don't gain 0.14 more first-innings bonus points than them.

In the Sheffield Shield teams get six points for an outright win, one point for a draw, plus 0.01 of a bonus point for every run over 200 they score during the first 100 overs of their first innings (ie: 350 after 100 overs nets you 1.5 bonus points) and 0.1 of a bonus point for every wicket a team takes during the first 100 overs of their opponent's first innings (ie: 10 wickets before 100 first-innings overs elapses nets you 1 point).

If Victoria-Western Australia finished in a draw there is an outside possibility of New South Wales sneaking into the final although they would need a huge amount of bonus points against Queensland.