Dean Jones says Australia is staring at a horror summer of cricket against South Africa and Pakistan, unless Steve Smith's men come out firing at the WACA Ground in the first Test against the Proteas next month.
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The former batsman describes the current state of Australian cricket as an "ugly situation", following the recent 5-0 series whitewash in the one-day series against South Africa, and the 3-0 loss to Sri Lanka on the Test tour earlier this year.
Former captain Mark Taylor believes less than half the Test side has done enough to guarantee their spots for the first match of the home summer, and Jones agreed the state of the Australian team had rapidly descended downhill.
"We are cherry ripe to be ripped apart here if we don't get it right in the first Test," Jones said.
"Up until before this Sri Lankan tour, everything's gone really well but for some reason we've hit a submerged rock and we've just disintegrated.
"The one-dayers, we're playing awful, Test cricket we've been average. Some people are starting to say now we might as well call the tour of India off in February through a lack of interest by our Australian batsmen.
"I don't like the rotation policy. That's number one.
"I don't like changing the captains, I've never liked that, either you're the captain or you're not the captain, what are ya.
"Our bowling's been poor. It's as simple as that and the only one that's really stood up has been Mitch [Starc]."
Taylor identified captain Steve Smith, opening batsman David Warner, wicketkeeper Peter Nevill and pace duo Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood as players who "pick themselves" for the WACA Ground Test starting on November 3.
"I don't think there's anyone else absolutely penned in at the moment," Taylor told cricket.com.au's The Unplayable Podcast.
"The depth's not quite as good as we hoped it would be at this stage."
Top-order batsmen Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja lost their spots for the third Test on the ill-fated tour of Sri Lanka, while Colombo centurion Shaun Marsh is recovering from a finger injury.
Middle-order batsman Adam Voges doesn't have age on his side, allrounder Mitch Marsh continues to show promise but can't break through with a big score and offspinner Nathan Lyon was disappointing as Sri Lanka's spinners thrived.
Moises Henriques and Jon Holland also played in the third Test in Colombo but are almost certain not to get the nod against the Proteas.
"It'll come down to some of these Matador Cup (domestic one-day cup) matches and that round of (Sheffield) Shield games will be vitally important," Taylor said.
"They've got to prove their selection."
Taylor said Burns and Khawaja would come back into calculations due to strong performances during the previous home summer against New Zealand and the West Indies.
South Africa will arrive in Perth for the opening clash of the three-Test series full of confidence after this week completing a 5-0 hammering of No.1-ranked Australia in the one-day series at home.
with AAP
