SHAUN Tait says Australia is ready to embrace a four-piece "rock n roll" ensemble capable of smashing Sri Lanka at speeds touching 160km/h.

Tait wants to hit Sri Lanka head-on in the first Test at the Gabba with his band of pace brothers - spearhead Brett Lee, left-armer Mitchell Johnson and steep bouncing giant Stuart Clark.

"You can't argue with that pace attack," said Tait, selected in a 13-man squad announced by chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch yesterday. "I think it would be good for Australian cricket."

Australia is likely to choose three pacemen and either left-arm chinaman Brag Hogg or leg-spinner Stuart MacGill to face the tourists in the series opener starting on Thursday in Brisbane.

But Tait said fans would relish witnessing this summer the most awesome array of speed guns assembled since the frightening West Indies attacks of the 1980s.

"People would enjoy it a fair bit, I reckon," said Tait, who rocketed out Australian skipper Ricky Ponting with a vicious lifter while bowling for South Australia against Tasmania in Hobart on Wednesday. "We haven't seen a fierce attack similar to the West Indies from the 1980s, so it would be something different. There is no other attack with a pace barrage like that."

Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene thinks Australia's attack is its weakest link with the retirements of leg-spinner Shane Warne and paceman Glenn McGrath.

Australia's World Cup enforcer begs to differ with the Sri Lankans who have lost six and drawn two Tests in Australia since 1988.

"Good on them, it doesn't matter what they say," said Tait, who made his first-class comeback for SA against Tasmania following elbow surgery in June.

"I am not going to make big calls about other teams. If we rock and rolled Sri Lanka for 100 they would look pretty silly though."

Tait believes his third appearance in the baggy green isn't too far away even if pruned from the first Test squad next Wednesday.

The super-slinger would still love to be let loose at the Gabba.

"You can't complain about the wicket up there," said Tait, backed this week by Warne and 71-Test paceman Jason Gillespie as "ready to go" in the first Test.

"An attack with the three blokes bowling 150km/h is going to suit us pretty well. You can't forget Stuie Clark - with the way he bowls he can be unplayable at times.

"The aim has always been to be fit by the first Test of the summer."

Hilditch says Australia's collection of express assassins was "exciting" but conditions at the Gabba would determine the final composition of Ponting's Test unit.