Australia make six changes for final Test vs Proteas

Bird responded by posting his highest first-class score – 39 – in Tasmania’s next Sheffield Shield match against South Australia.

“Chadd’s a very good performer, and a very good performer in Adelaide and that’s why he’s been chosen for this Test match”, Hohns said.

Colour blind Wade believes it is important for him not to think too much about it, and understands the need to work it out.

The South Australian seamer burst into the Australian domestic scene in the 2012-13 season, taking 48 wickets at an average of 18.5, winning the “Neil Dansie Medal” for being the state association’s player of the season.

“And Steve showed in that first innings what you have to do and we sort of did that in the second innings but didn’t do it well enough and that’s probably why the result went its way”.

It was never going to be pretty. “I think he will be a better captain for the results we have had and I am sure he will turn it around”.

Australia was also swept 3-0 in a test series in Sri Lanka in July and August and then beaten 5-0 in a limited-overs worldwide series in South Africa.

Incumbent Australia No.6 Ferguson had already squandered his last chance to impress, out for four in his second dig on Saturday.

However, renowned Australian cricket critic Breet Geeves, who played two One-Day International and one T20I for the Australia in 2008-2009, blamed Greg Chappell and former Rugby player Pat Howard, who is the High-Performance Director of Australian cricket team.

It has been a traumatic time for Australian cricket after last week’s sudden resignation of chairman of selectors Rod Marsh, and with intense pressure on top officials including coach Darren Lehmann. Australia suffered two heavy defeats to South Africa in Perth and Hobart, meaning the third Test is a dead rubber.

Sayers and Bird are likely to be in contention for one spot in the pace attack along with Starc and Hazlewood, while Wade looks set to replace Nevill behind the stumps.

In anointing 20-year-old Renshaw, 24-year-old Maddinson and 25-year-old Handscomb, selectors have satisfied a number of pundits who complained that promising talents were being stifled by a perceived preference for late-bloomers like Adam Voges and the retired Chris Rogers.

Hohns said Renshaw had “established himself in a short period of time as one of the best young opening bats in the country”. “There’s no secret Matthew Wade’s batting is very, very good, in fact he’s scored hundreds in Test cricket”, interim chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said on Sunday.

While a few metres away Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb collected their bags for the very first time as Australian Test cricketers, Callum Ferguson reflected on how he had been picked and discarded in the space of a single week.

“We were always keen on playing a spinner in this game and that’s the way we’ve gone with Nathan Lyon”, he said.