If Victorian skipper Cameron White really wants to elbow his way into the Australian Test team and lay claim to the No.6 batting spot, there's one thing he must do.

"He has got to make some big scores to get a look in," former Australian and Victorian captain Graham Yallop says.

That didn't come on day one of the Sheffield Shield final against Queensland at the MCG, with White falling for just 10.

That left White with just 240 runs at 40 and without a century in eight Shield innings this summer.

Last summer he bagged 462 runs at 57.75 with a pair of centuries, a healthier return although he did still finish seventh on the Bushrangers' run-scoring list.

"He has worked on his one-day game more than anything else I would have thought - that's the message I am getting," Yallop says.

"He needs to have some big scores, not just your 70s and 80s. He has got to put in the 150s and 200s to get noticed now.

"That's what he has got to do, but wouldn't it be nice for him to play with a baggy green on?"

For Victorian cricket fans, it would. But White, overlooked for the Test tour of New Zealand, beginning on Friday in Wellington, hasn't completed what Yallop says must be done if he is to reclaim his spot in the Test XI.

White has certainly developed as a limited overs and Twenty20 batting bully in the past year. An acknowledgement of his prowess in this area came when he was named as Michael Clarke's deputy in the Twenty20 side.

Indeed, there are some in the know who feel he should have been made captain, for Clarke's record in the bite-sized format is less than impressive. But that's an argument for another day.

The current debate focuses on just who should fill the No.6 spot in the Test side, with incumbent Marcus North and promising leg-spinning all-rounder Steven Smith jockeying for the role.

West Australian North has been a failure of late, averaging only 23 during the Test summer with a top score of just 29 in the seven Shield innings he has played since the Tests.

Overall, he has a modest 294 runs at 24.50 in 12 Shield innings this summer. What is in his favour, however, is the national selectors do like his ability to be a tidy back-up off-spinner.

The emerging Smith has been a revelation of late. The blond NSW leggie has slammed four Shield tons this summer - the most of any player - and claimed 21 wickets, including a career-best haul of 7-87 against South Australia, to be named the Shield player of the year.

But, as Yallop questions, are they any better or more deserving than White, who played the last of his four Tests on the 2008 Indian tour when he was ridiculously chosen as the frontline spinner.

It could be argued White's leg and top spin (he has 172 wickets at 40 in 107 first-class matches) would be just as handy as North's offies, while providing variation to Nathan Hauritz's off-spin.

"They are all about the same standard, aren't they?" Yallop says of the trio.

"But as you know, coming from Victoria, we have to do something extra to get acknowledgement."

That's a theory, or running joke, depending on who you talk to, that former Victorian captain Darren Berry suggests has merit.

"The late David Hookes made one of his many bold statements when he suggested that a New South Welshman making his debut for the state was handed a paper bag with a baggy green cap in it," Berry wrote last weekend in his Sunday Age column.

It's still clearly a sore point amongst some New South Welshmen.  Fox Sports commentators Mark Waugh, from north of the Murray, and Queenslander Jimmy Maher exchanged a few pointed words when the former Bulls skipper dared to dredge up that theory during play at the MCG on Wednesday.

Berry, for his part, went on to argue on Sunday that White was "far more deserving" than Smith and North of filling No.6, as he "is the most improved cricketer in the country, if not the world, particularly with the bat in his hand".

That's a big call but Berry, also a Victorian and now an assistant coach to Shane Warne with Indian Premier League team Rajasthan Royals, knows his cricket more than most.

Yallop re-iterates that White must score, and score big, to sway the thoughts of selection chairman Andrew Hilditch.

If not, the only way he may again don the baggy green cap will be if he can find one of those brown paper bags.

"And there aren't any in any corner of any room that I know of," Yallop says, laughing.