Usman Khawaja has taken a swipe at Australian cricket selectors, questioning their policy for changing the team depending on where games are played.
The 30-year-old is expected to bat at No.3 for Australia in this summer's Ashes, having performed strongly in Tests against South Africa and Pakistan last summer, but has since been overlooked for matches played in Asia.
He says selectors continually changing the line-up has created instability in the team.
"They never used to do it before, I'm not really sure why they do it now," Khawaja told ABC Radio.
"It creates a lot of instability in the team I reckon, going in and out for everyone.
"You hear things like 'the players are playing afraid' or whatnot, but that's what happens when you drop players all the time. We've been doing that a fair bit lately.
"I know as captain of Queensland, I try and avoid that as much as possible. Players I pick in the first game, I try to stick with them as long as possible, because they'll always be the best players on the park.
"For some reason it seems like lately in Australia that the best players always seem to be the next guy in, which I don't totally agree with.
"(It is) very hard to develop your game and play some consist cricket if you're not getting consistent opportunities overseas, which I haven't been getting."
Without playing in the Test series in India in March, Khawaja was brought back into the Test side in Dhaka in August, but dropped after scoring one run in each innings.
Lehmann was bullish in September about Khawaja reclaiming his No.3 spot after being dumped for the second Test in Chittagong.
"I would think Usman would play the first Test match (of the Ashes), although I'm only one of four selectors," Lehmann said in Bangladesh.
"Usman, obviously for the make-up of the side, we changed it here but we think he's a pretty special player and, obviously, he's got a really good record in Australia."
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