Rain denied Australia a tune-up match on their South African tour, but the visitors will finally get some quality time in the middle on Friday at the Wanderers.

Australia should have been starting a four-day clash with a South African Invitational XI on Wednesday in Potchefstroom.

Instead they were training in the nets at Centurion for the second day in a row, while team management made arrangements for an intra-squad hit-out in Johannesburg on Friday and Saturday.

Michael Clarke’s men have been railroaded by rain since landing in the country a week ago, and there are more showers forecast for the extended centre-wicket practice session.

“Hopefully the weather holds up for that,” Australia opener David Warner said.

“(But) the boys are going well, they’re hitting enough balls. The bowlers are bowling enough.”

Even if showers force Australia to retreat to the indoor nets in Centurion, Warner won’t be complaining.

“Those practice wickets in there are fast and bouncy, they’re like the Gabba indoor nets and it’s good practice before we face someone like Morne (Morkel) and Dale (Steyn),” he said.

“You do get a lot out of it, if you practice the way that you want to practice.”

Alex Doolan, who missed training on Tuesday due to the flu, batted well on Wednesday against the likes of Peter Siddle and James Pattinson.

Pattinson and Siddle then delivered some venomous bouncers to Phillip Hughes on the sodden training strip.

Doolan and Hughes are locked in a battle to replace omitted batsman George Bailey, the national selectors’ only concern before the first Test starts on Wednesday at the SuperSport Park in Centurion.

The two sides will have negotiate an underprepared pitch in the three-Test series opener due to heavy rain.

“I couldn’t quite see a wicket out there to be honest. There were a lot of used ones,” Warner said.

“At the moment they (the pitches) look a bit tired, that whole square.

“But we have to wait and see, it’s seven days out from the first day, so I’m pretty sure they’ll put something up.”