Sydney: Injured Australian opener David Warner said on Tuesday he was confident of being ready for the first Test against New Zealand next month as he slowly recovers from a broken thumb.

The Test vice-captain suffered the injury when he got in a tangle trying to play a Steven Finn bouncer against England in a one-dayer five weeks ago.

He has not played since but is hopeful of returning for New South Wales’ day-night Sheffield Shield match ahead of the Test series against New Zealand which gets under way on November 5.

The left-hander revealed that his last X-ray, taken 11 days ago, had showed the thumb was still broken, but had been told this was quite normal.

“Today is five weeks, it should have healed by the end of this week,” he told reporters on joining a 19-man squad for light training in Sydney as preparations for the series got started.

“Next Monday I want to try and have a hit ... I’ll see on Friday with the X-ray how it is.”

The prolonged recovery effectively leaves him with just a single Sheffield Shield game to show form and fitness before the first Test at the Gabba.

That match against South Australia is doubly important because it will be a day-nighter played with a pink ball to simulate conditions for the historic first day-night Test — the second match of the three-Test series against New Zealand.

“I would like to play a Shield game. I would love to have a hit against the pink ball especially,” said Warner.

“That [day-night Test in Adelaide] is one thing I am looking forward to this summer.”

Australia coach Darren Lehmann meanwhile said he expects a seamless transition period for his new-look Test team heading into next month’s start of the international cricket season.

Australia will embark on the campaign under new captain Steve Smith and deputy David Warner without the recent retirees Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris, Chris Rogers and Shane Watson.

Despite the wealth of missing experience, Lehmann said he was confident the players coming through would be ready for the challenge in home Test series against New Zealand and the West Indies.

“It will be pretty easy, I think they’re all good kids,” Lehmann told the Cricket Australia website.

“They know how we want to play and how we want to behave and act. We want to make sure we’re entertaining people the whole time and we’ve been very good at that over the past 12 months.”

While the start of Australia’s red-ball training camp in Sydney was washed out on Tuesday, Lehmann welcomed the opportunity to spend more time with squad newcomers Cameron Bancroft and Andrew Fekete.

“I don’t know him well enough yet to be perfectly honest,” Lehmann said of Bancroft, who is regarded as a candidate to open the Test batting with Warner.

“I’m looking forward to spending some time with him if he gets selected. His thirst for the game is second to none and he trains the house down, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes about it. It’s good to see the young guys come in and see what we’re about.

“This is chance to see how they play and how they face Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc [at training],” he added.