Australia's bid to conquer the one form of the game it is yet to dominate - Twenty20 cricket - begins in earnest at the MCG on Friday night against Pakistan.
While Pakistan is yet to win a game on its Australian tour - with the home side having made a clean sweep of both the Test and one-day series - that form line is likely to count for little when it comes to the shortest form of the game.
Pakistan is the reigning world champion when it comes to Twenty20, having won last year's ICC World Twenty20 in England, the same tournament in which Australia made a humiliating first-round exit.
And while Australia has spent most of the past 15 years as the world's best Test nation and is clearly the world's best one-day team - having won the past three World Cups - it has struggled to make the same impact in the newest form of the game.
With the next World Twenty20 to be played in the West Indies in May this year, Australia has little time to waste re-building its team.
That process gets underway at the MCG on Friday night when Australia hosts Pakistan while the Aussies will also play two Twenty20 matches against the West Indies later in February followed by two more at the start of their New Zealand tour at the end of the month.
After being criticised for not picking enough specialist Twenty20 players during Australia's failure at last year's World Twenty20, the selectors appear to have heeded that message with the side to face Pakistan vastly different to the one-day side that claimed the recent series 5-0.
Veteran batsman Mike Hussey, as well as bowlers/all-rounders Peter Siddle, Nathan Hauritz, James Hopes, Clint McKay and Adam Voges, were all omitted from the one-day team.
Instead, in come new faces in NSW leg spinning all-rounder Steve Smith and Tasmanian batsman Travis Birt, who are both in line to make their international debuts for Australia after starring in the recent domestic KFC Twenty20 Big Bash.
Victoria fast bowler Dirk Nannes is another Twenty20 specialist named in the squad along with South Australian quick Shaun Tait, NSW opener David Warner and Victoria middle order batsman David Hussey.
Queensland all-rounder Ryan Harris looms as another potential Twenty20 trump card for Australia after snaring 13 wickets in three matches in the recent one-day series against Pakistan to be named man-of-the-series in his return to the national team following a long-term knee injury.
But Pakistan, despite its poor form in Australia this summer, will be a difficult opponent on Friday night in front of what is expected to be a 60,000-plus crowd.
And the man the Australians will have to watch out for is paceman Umar Gul, who has been the star of the past two ICC World Twenty20 championships with a tournament-high 13 wickets each time - including the extraordinary figures of 5-6 off just three overs in the 2009 tournament against New Zealand.
Australia squad: Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White (v-capt), Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh, David Warner, Travis Birt, David Hussey, Steven Smith, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait.