Hayden wins reprieve

Matthew Hayden has come under fire from various quarters for his poor form

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Out-of-form opener Matthew Hayden lives to fight another day but chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch and captain Ricky Ponting have again thrown down the gauntlet to Australia's underperforming senior players.

Despite Australia slumping to their second series loss in three months, and their first at home in 16 years, the selectors refused to wield the axe for the summer's final Test against South Africa in Sydney starting on Saturday.

They made three changes to the 12-man party on duty at the MCG this week, naming uncapped trio Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger and Andrew McDonald to replace the injured Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson.

Lee (foot) and Symonds (knee) will undergo surgery in the next four days, which could keep them out for the rest of the international summer, while Watson has been sidelined by stress fractures of the back.

They are the latest in what Hilditch described as "an amazingly bad run of injuries".

Since the end of last summer, Australia have lost first-choice opener Phil Jaques, opening bowler Stuart Clark and leg-spinner Bryce McGain, who was set to replace Stuart MacGill and Brad Hogg as the number one spinner until damaging his side in India.

Hayden, Mike Hussey and Lee have endured lean times recently, and Hilditch said it was now up to the senior players to perform in order to help the less experienced members of the team make the transition into Test cricket.

"Senior players stepping up as Ricky has done and the others will as well, will make rebuilding a lot easier," Hilditch said.

Brett Lee will play no part in the final Test against South Africa due to a foot injury that requires surgery

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"But if you're looking at rebuilding we're looking at the young players coming in and how they're going. We think they're all having an impact.

"None of them are letting us down. The reality is they're all proving they can have very good careers for Australia."

Hilditch insists Hayden remains part of Australia's long-term plans, dismissing uggestions that the opener was being handed a 'testimonial Test' so he could bow out at the end of the series.

Hilditch insisted Hayden deserved the opportunities he had been given this summer.

"I suppose when anybody sat down and decided who were the best players of all time for Australia, Matthew Hayden's name at the top of the order would be very close if not in that side," he said.

"It's important he's given that opportunity because we'd still like him to be a part in our plans."

Ponting agreed that now is not the time to be inconsistent with selection.

"I think there are enough positives come out of the last few weeks for us all to be reasonably happy with what we've done and what we've seen from some of our younger players indicates they're going to be very good players in the future," Ponting said.

Ricky Ponting and Andrew Hilditch are both reticent to make wholesale changes to the Australia side

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"We've all got to remain upbeat. It's not the time to panic or, as Andrew said, chop and change. We'll stick with guys that we feel have got long careers for Australia."

Former Test greats Ian Healy and Ian Chappell claim Australia need to turn to youth now.

"I think we're paying the penalty for the people that have been saying we've got to get used to 28-year-olds making their debut for Australia - that's rubbish," Chappell, the former Australia captain said.

"We've got to get back into the old position where Australia played young guys when they were 20, 21.

“We've got to get back to that which means we've got to start right down at the bottom. Right from club cricket all the way up."

Healy, the wicketkeeper who played 119 Tests for Australia, urged the selectors to show faith in the players they picked.

"Don't go for the panic stage that happened between the years of 1984 and 1988 when we chopped and changed and chopped and changed until we made that decision about 1987-88," he said.

Australia squad: Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden, Simon Katich, Michael Hussey, Andrew McDonald, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger.