Australia's longest-serving cricket selector Trevor Hohns believes the panel's job has never been so hard, having axed four batsmen while parachuting Will Pucovski into the Test squad after just eight first-class games.
Pucovski, the 20-year-old prodigy who scored 243 at the start of the Sheffield Shield season then took a break from cricket to focus on his mental health, has been included in Australia's 13-man squad for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka.
Shaun Marsh, Mitch Marsh, Peter Handscomb and Aaron Finch were dumped, while openers Joe Burns and Matthew Renshaw have been recalled.
Burns, Renshaw, Pucovski and Marnus Labuschagne will play for the Cricket Australia (CA) XI in next week's tour game against Sri Lanka, a virtual selection trial for the first Test that begins in Brisbane on January 24.
The void left by Steve Smith and David Warner, now considered certainties to make Test returns on this year's Ashes tour, has exposed a broken system and alarming lack of batting depth.
Australia's landmark 2-1 loss to India marked the first time no Australian has scored a century in a home four-Test series.
Hohns, Justin Langer and Greg Chappell are now attempting to fix a misfiring top six during a two-month period in which domestic players can only make their case in Twenty20 cricket.
Hohns, having served as a national selectors from 1993 to 2006 then returned to the panel in 2014, admits things have never been so grim.
"It's been a tough couple of weeks for everybody ... it's been an unprecedented period," he said.
"It's also been a challenge because of the program. We've been Test cricket to T20 cricket to one-day cricket to Test cricket and we're going to one-day cricket again now.
"It (the lack of first-class cricket) is probably not appropriate ... it's unfortunate ... how we rectify that, that's in the hands of CA.
"We can't do much about that at the moment. The Big Bash is on."
Hohns suggested Burns and Renshaw, overlooked throughout the four-Test series against India, were recalled because Australia need to shore up their top order.
"Whether we got it right or wrong, that's up to you people to judge," he said.
Burns dismissed talk of a 'bat off' between him and Queensland teammate Renshaw in Hobart, where the three-day tour match starts on January 17.
"He's my little mate, or tall mate that walks out with me in the trenches opening the batting," Burns said in Brisbane.
The setback shapes as the end of 35-year-old Shaun Marsh's stop-start Test career, although Hohns insisted the door remains open to every batsman that paid a price for their lack of runs against India.
"All four are very good players ... they will all feature in the ODI series against India," he said.
"They have been given good opportunity, but have not produced the scores we need."
Peter Siddle will again be on drinks duty, barring an injury to Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood or Pat Cummins.
Australia's 13-man Test squad: Marcus Harris, Joe Burns, Matthew Renshaw, Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Will Pucovksi, Marnus Labuschagne, Tim Paine (capt), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Siddle.
