Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke has criticised the on-field relationship between leaders Steve Smith and David Warner, saying the pair are not communicating enough.
Clarke wants to see vice-captain Warner work  more closely with Smith in order to lessen the pressure on the skipper, who is staring at his fifth consecutive Test defeat.
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Luck fails Australia's openers
Australia's opening pair will consider themselves unlucky after both fell in unfortunate fashion.
Smith, in his second summer at the helm, is enduring the most difficult phase of his captaincy, in charge of a team that has lost a series against Sri Lanka and, barring a miraculous fightback, will also lose to South Africa.
Clarke's comments, which were backed up by another former vice-captain, Shane Warne, are likely to raise eyebrows in Australian cricket given he has admitted he was not a good deputy to Ricky Ponting. But they also echo those recently made by Brad Haddin, who was Clarke's lieutenant when the team whitewashed England in the 2014/15 Ashes.
Haddin and Clarke had a strong on-field relationship, having been long-time teammates at state and international level. Their relative proximity in the field – Haddin was the wicketkeeper and Clarke stood in the slips cordon – also facilitated the sharing of ideas. Warner, however, fields at mid-off to protect a finger injury he sustained this year, while Smith is at second slip.
"It's really important as vice-captain or one of the senior players to be helping the captain out," Clarke said on Channel Nine.
"There's no doubt when things are going well you have so many people coming up and giving you ideas, it's now when Steve Smith will need some help from the senior players and his vice-captain David Warner is very important,.
"I was watching in that first session, David Warner is fielding at mid-off, Steve Smith is at second slip, unless it's a drinks or lunch break, very rarely do you see those two communicating between overs.
"I think David now as vice-captain of the team needs to be giving the captain as much help and guidance as he possibly can.
"At the same time if Steve Smith is looking for an idea he needs to go to David Warner, Adam Voges, Mitchell Starc – the senior players – and get their thoughts and ideas.
"Sometimes you get so caught up in what's happening in the game right in front of you the most basic idea or simple field position or bowling change might skip by you as captain. That's why you need help from others."
Haddin wrote last month in a column for ESPNcricinfo that it was important for the vice-captain to be able to have frank conversations with the captain about the team.
"These conversations should be honest enough to be able to say, "I don't think this is working, and this is how the group is feeling", or "I think you might have missed this"," Haddin wrote.
"These aren't always the easiest conversations, but they have to happen from a place of mutual respect.
"The captain can either take note or disregard it, but the main thing is that he knows how things are tracking when he does make his final call on a given issue. That doesn't happen without a healthy relationship between captain and deputy.
"Overall, the role of the vice-captain is to complement what the captain does."
Cricket Australia addressed the purpose of the role in its review into the game, penned by businessman Don Argus, after the 2010/11 Ashes debacle.
"The captain should also actively seek and use the counsel of his vice-captain, which is an important role and should be more clearly defined," Argus wrote in 2011.