"Don't be safe, don't hold anything back, because at some stage this time is going to run out and I don't want to look back thinking I wish I did it another way."

It's the same thought Agar says catapulted him into being comfortable with vulnerability, content with the possibility of failure.

The same thought which ran through his mind on an Australia A tour to England soon after he had lost a Cricket Australia contract, and the same thought that has vaulted him back into a national deal this season.

"I thought about it like 'I've got a chance to do something I have wanted to do since I was a little kid'," Agar said.

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"That Australia A tour of England a couple of years ago changed my attitude towards positivity. I walk towards being vulnerable, and the magic happens, and it's a lot more fun, it's a lot more fun.

"It's a little more risky, but you just have to be willing to fail to succeed really big, if that makes sense."

Which is why Agar is prepared to take a gamble when he stares down the likes of Virat Kohli in the coming weeks.

Australia will launch the men's international summer of cricket with six white-ball games against India, with three one-day internationals followed by a three-game Twenty20 series.

The bulk of the matches will be played at the SCG while the third 50-over match will be played at Manuka Oval on December 2, before the same venue hosts the Twenty20 opener on December 4.

The Indian side attracts billions of eyeballs will again have the weight of a cricket-mad nation on their shoulders and Agar is relishing the chance to test himself against the powerhouse.

"The first time I ever toured India, it's easy to get a little bit overawed by the whole occasion," Agar said.

"All of a sudden at the other end you've got great players of the game, you've got the crowd going ballistic, and you kind of just want to get out of it unscathed.

"Now I've played a little bit more international cricket and I've got more confidence, and I really believe in myself at the international level, this is the stuff you want.

"You crave a bit of spotlight, the energy, the competition, the fierceness. You have no choice but to just back yourself. There is no better team to test yourself and your skills against than India."

Yet for so long there were fears the Australian team wouldn't get this opportunity against their Indian rivals, or perhaps anyone for that matter.

The SCG and Manuka Oval will operate at 50 per cent of their usual capacity while players are spending their summer in cricket hubs as officials look to avoid a coronavirus outbreak.

"It's amazing actually reflecting on that. When COVID first hit, there was a real doomsday prediction which was obviously overwhelmingly negative," Agar said.

"It looked like there was going to be no international cricket, everyone had probably written off the summer and all sports were struggling at that stage. There was a really sad prediction for the future of the game.

"The landscape is changing all the time but Cricket Australia and the players have been incredible with being so flexible. People's lives are getting thrown all over the place and plans are changing every couple of minutes.

"To have an international summer going ahead, a really successful tour of England to have already happened, a full Big Bash, that's enormous."