The duo are among the leading candidates to be called into a Test side that was blown away in Hobart by the South Africans. With three spots likely to be available in the batting line-up the pair can reinforce their claims in a Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at the SCG.

As well as Test captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner, the game starting on Thursday will feature a range of batsmen for selectors to consider. Victoria's Glenn Maxwell, who averaged 56 in the last Shield season, and Peter Handscomb are other contenders, as is Bushrangers all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and former Test wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, who will be considered as a specialist top-six bat as well as a possible replacement for Australian gloveman Peter Nevill.

There has been a resounding call for Australia to turn to youth, however, from former players such as Ian Chappell and Brad Haddin – and Maddinson, 24, and Patterson, 23, fit the bill.

Johnston believes they deserve a chance.  

"Both those guys are ready to play, know their games and it's a matter of giving them their opportunity to see what they can do at the next level," Johnson said on Wednesday.

"I think those guys are ready to play Test cricket. The time is right for them."

Maddinson and Patterson have posted hundreds in the first two rounds of the Shield season while the former also starred in NSW's successful defence of the Matador Cup one-day tournament.

Patterson was the leading run-scorer in the series between Australia A and a South Africa A tour party that included Test seamer Vernon Philander in the winter in Queensland, while Maddinson scored a century during the one-day matches between those sides.

"They've both come into form at a good time," Johnson said. "I think we've all realised how gifted a cricketer Maddo has been. He got a bit more responsibility at end of last Shield season, when he took the captaincy at 23, and that matured him a lot. 

"He had another dominant performance in the Matador that saw us retain that trophy and in his words if the century he scored the other day against Western Australia wasn't his best it was certainly in his top two hundreds." 

"It's his time. If he was called on to wear the baggy green I'd say he's ready."

Patterson, who scored a century on first-class debut as an 18-year-old, has already been a subject of selectors' discussions, and would appear to have an inside running to get a start in the pink-ball Test, the third and final of the series against South Africa, starting in Adelaide next Thursday.

He enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2015-16, averaging 52.64 with the bat, before going on with it in the winter and picking up where he left off so far this summer.

"I've only been [at NSW] for three years and I've seen Kurtis develop into one of the leaders in our group," Johnston said.

"I think that he was always destined for higher honours and I think the cricket that he played in the winter certainly reinforced to him that he is good enough.

"The advantage that Kurtis has is his flexibility. He can bat anywhere from one to six. He batted there for us last game, he batted four in Brisbane in the first game and he'll probably bat five in this game. I think that's a massive bonus for the Australian selectors."

The ability to be able to "to step up and I suppose play with familiar faces" is another plus for the Blues pair.

Of the four players who Australian coach Darren Lehmann indicated were guaranteed their places in Adelaide – Smith, Warner, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood – all play for NSW.

smh.com.au