Adam Gilchrist believes Australia must not panic and make wholesale changes to the Test squad as they look to come to terms with an Ashes defeat and a raft of retirements. 

The wicketkeeping legend feels the situation is tailor-made for youngsters to step up and make Australia a formidable force again in the future.

After thrashing England 5-0 Down Under in 2013/14, the Baggy Greens were favourites to retain the urn. Instead they fell to a 3-2 loss, leading to the retirements of Ryan Harris, Michael Clarke, Chris Rogers and Shane Watson.

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Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin (37),  middle-order batsmen Adam Voges (35) and Shaun Marsh (32),  fast bowler Mitchell Johnson (33), and leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed (33) were all named in the Ashes squad and with question marks over whether they can add to their international caps, Gilchrist agrees with head coach Darren Lehmann that it is time to build a young team under Steven Smith’s captaincy.

Joe Burns (23) and Cameron Bancroft (21) are among the young batsmen expected to fight for Test spots.
“It’s not a major overhaul that is needed,” said the 43-year-old, who was at the University of Wollongong in Dubai yesterday for the Adam Gilchrist Sports Awards.

“I don’t think we are that bad when we scored 60 (in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge, which they lost by an innings and 78 runs). We are a better team than that. My advice would be don’t panic and I don’t think Darren Lehmann is one to panic.

"The opportunity for young players is now very obvious so it’s up to them and not so much with the sel-ectors or the coaches.

“It’s about the next generation of players who can seize that opportunity. They are the ones responsible and can launch themselves for a successful period.”

Guiding them through that per-iod is newly-installed captain Steven Smith following Clarke’s ret-irement. The three-time World Cup winner is impressed with the 26-year-old’s showing and backed him to become a successful skipper.

“He’s doing all the right things at such a young age to become a formidable international cricketer of recognition in time,” said Gilchrist, who retired from the game in 2008 after featuring in 96 Tests (5570 runs) and 287 ODIs (9619 runs).

“It’s still very early in his career and he has achieved remarkable results in the last couple of years. 

“The most impressive thing about Steven is that he came in as a youngster with pure unnatural talent and was exposed a little bit and his level dropped.

“He went away and didn’t actually change his technique but figured out that he had to do more mentally and technically and has come back and made that work for himself.”

He added: “The new challenge for him is to become the leader of the group. Being captain of the Australian team is huge and is a high pressure position and I think over time, captains have got worn down by it given the expectations. 

“That will be the challenge for him at such a young age to remain fresh for what he would hope to be another 10 years of his career.”

Among the players who look destined for big roles in the future are  wicketkeepers Peter Nevill and Matthew Wade as senior stumper Brad Haddin is set to take a call on his Test career soon.

Gilchrist feels both Nevill and Wade are worthy successors to Haddin but they still need to improve.

“Brad Haddin did a terrific job for a couple of years and a high standard has been set. But it’s always good to have competition for places,” said Gilchrist, who held the world record of 472 dismissals as wicketkeeper in ODIs before being overtaken by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (482).

“I’ve been very impressed with Nevill’s wicketkeeping with the way he came in against England. I think he’s a guy who will only improve the more he’s exposed to that level and the opportunity to train around that environment. He will only get better and better.

“Matthew is the same. He’s had a taste of it and has very strong batting talent, he knows his wicket-keeping is an area where he knows he needs to sharpen up on.”