Pat Howard has indicated that selectors Mark Waugh and Trevor Hohns could follow the panel's chairman Rod Marsh out the door, while calling on head coach Darren Lehmann to reinvent himself after a tumultuous start to the home summer.
The fact that the second day of the second Test match that was lost completely to rain left additional time to stew over the Australians' latest collapse, for 85, on day one and the general air of malaise about the state of the team, and as a result the game itself.
![Under the pump: Steve Smith and Darren Lehmann watching the rain at Blundstone Arena.](/web/20161115231930im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/g/m/8/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gso7kb.png/1479071009670.jpg)
Despite being ranked No.1 in the world only a matter of three months ago, there are striking similarities between where the team is now at and the depths to which it had slumped in the summer before Howard's appointment as team performance manager in 2011.
While the Argus review at that time examined the high performance structure in its entirety, the self-analysis this time round must be squarely on the consistent shortcomings of Australia's batting.
Howard on Sunday defended the re-signing in August of Lehmann until 2019. Australia, in danger of a fifth straight Test defeat in Hobart despite the weather, has not won since.
Asked whether it had been premature to extend Lehmann's deal for a further two years, Howard said: "Not at the time it wasn't."
He added: "I've been working with Darren for a long time, I get to see him work.This is a great challenge for his coaching, I think he's in uncharted territory for him as well and we've talked about that. This is a great chance for him to reinvent.
"We've got a young captain with a coach that's wanted to give the team and squad some stability. I make no apologies for that, I made the decision and I take accountability for that."
![Australian Selector: Mark Waugh.](/web/20161115231930im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/o/f/5/7/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gso7kb.png/1479032175225.jpg)
While there is an increasing demand for change in senior positions in and around the team, Howard indicated there would not be any snap decisions made during the Test summer.
Lehmann is safe, so is Marsh until the end of his contract in June, and Howard himself says he will not decide until after the Test series against Pakistan whether to stay on beyond the end of his deal next year either.
!["I've been working with Darren for a long time": Pat Howard.](/web/20161115231930im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/o/f/5/4/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gso7kb.png/1479032175225.jpg)
"If you are looking for the players to have resilience you want the people around them to have resilience," he said. "So I expect Darren, me, Rod, all of us to show that exact same resilience we're expecting of the players."
What is well and truly on the cards is for a revamp of the under-pressure selection panel, with Hohns and Waugh also out of contract in June.
Waugh was seen as a contender to succeed Marsh as full-time national selector but that now appears unlikely. Howard said he had not contemplated cutting ties with Marsh immediately and looking to the future when the 69-year-old told him several months ago that he would not seek a contract extension.
"Trevor Hohns and Mark Waugh will go on and their contracts are due up at the same time as well, so they may not be staying either," Howard said.
"I appreciate the pressure comes on Rod, he knows that this comes with the role, but there are people in that situation all the time and every time you say someone is not going to stay and you exit them straight away it doesn't respect the work that they are doing at the time."
These are turbulent times for all in senior positions in and around the team.
"That [Argus] report talks about ultimate accountability, so that's me," Howard said. "I've got to make the people that report to me [accountable] ... Darren was asked is he under the pump and he said 'yes, am I under the pump, absolutely,' as I should be.
"I've got no problem with that. Always with that you go and address and focus on the problem, focus on the problem at hand, we're in the middle of a Test match and I want to see some resilience now, and see the guys who can step up and take the opportunity. As a team we're under the pump, as a system we're under the pump and I think Australians expect that fight and that's a fair expectation."
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