The 29-year-old Western Australia offspinner is in a battle with Victoria's Todd Murphy and Tasmania's Matt Kuhnemann to be Australia's second Test spinner this summer behind 38-year-old Nathan Lyon.
Kuhnemann, 30, appears to be in the box seat to retain the mantle, having toured with Australia but not been picked to play in their 2-1 series loss in South Africa.
But Rocchiccioli performed admirably in Australia A's recent two Tests away against India A and has also grabbed 10 wickets at an average of 36.2 in his first three matches of the Sheffield Shield season.
The right-handed slow bowler toiled for figures of 1-67 off 21 overs against Victoria on Wednesday.
Yet he maintained it was probably his most consistent bowling performance of the summer so far, and partly credited a conversation with Australia's spin tormentor Harmer.
"I'm evolving," Rocchiccioli told reporters after day one at the MCG.
"I actually had a phone call with Simon Harmer yesterday ... I got his phone number in the winter and I sort of reached out to have a chat and I got plenty from it.
"Him and Gaz (Lyon) - that was the best series that I've watched in a long time for spin bowling, (Keshav) Maharaj as well.
"I just wanted to get in touch and learn from the greats and I feel like him, Gaz and Maharaj are greats of off-spin bowling."
If left out of the mix for Australia's clashes with New Zealand on home soil, Rocchiccioli's next chance could come when Australia pick their squad for the five-Test series in India starting on January 21.
Rocchiccioli said he learned a lot from his most recent Australia A trip to India, where he bagged eight wickets at an average of 27.5.
"I felt like I performed better this time around compared to the year before (in India) because I had far more knowledge of what I was going to come across," he said.
"It's completely different to playing in Perth so I felt like I adapted really well, and I thought me and Murph worked beautifully together."
31°C