A watchful Queensland crawled to 1-46 at lunch on the opening day of their top of the table Sheffield Shield clash with Western Australia at the Gabba on Monday.

Opener Wade Townsend is not out 19 off 101 balls and Andrew Robinson unbeaten on 18 off 58 after the Bulls won the toss.

The stage was set for an intriguing battle with WA’s Shaun Marsh desperate to find form with the bat after a horror run for Australia and Bulls quick Ben Cutting returning to Shield cricket following a long injury layoff.

Marsh has been relegated to Shield cricket after four ducks in his past seven innings for Australia, including a second-ball dismissal in Friday night’s Twenty20 loss to India.

And Cutting is also hoping to revive hopes of an Australian call-up after returning from a side strain suffered in December following a 12th man stint in the first Test against New Zealand.

But both may need to wait a while before trying to impress national selectors judging by the snail’s pace of the Bulls batsmen on Monday.

There were only 24 scoring shots in 31 overs with just three fours – and Townsend didn’t find the fence until the 30th over.

Queensland dug in after being reduced to 1-10 in the ninth over when Ryan Broad (five) failed to offer a shot and was trapped in front by ex-Bulls quick Nathan Rimmington (1-8 off eight overs).

The Bulls are on top of the Shield ladder with 30 points and can take another confident stride toward booking a final spot with success against second-placed WA (20 points).