Usman Khawaja has warned Australia faces an inevitably tricky transition period while revealing he has no immediate plans to retire from Test cricket.
Australia are bracing for their biggest changing of the guard in 15 years, with nine of their 13-man squad for the Frank Worrell Trophy aged over 30.
David Warner has already indicated he will likely walk away from Test cricket within the year, becoming the first player to retire from within the team since Mitchell Johnson in 2015.
Coach Andrew McDonald has previously stated Australian cricket needs to be careful that players do not retire in clumps, citing the obvious example of openers Warner and Khawaja.
But Khawaja admits that is hard to choreograph, and that little can be done to avoid the same challenges Australia faced when Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer all went.
"There's definitely going to be a transition period, and I think you just have to accept that as an Australian international team," Khawaja said.
"We're probably always deemed to repeat the mistakes of our past."
Khawaja was one of the players blooded in the difficult years, as well as the likes of Steve Smith, Nathan Lyon, David Warner, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc.
The opener believes Australia are better off getting all they can out of their older players, rather than rush through succession.
"You have to accept in international cricket that's going to happen," Khawaja said.
"We are always a bit harsh, we have such high expectations for Australian cricket. But we saw what happened 10-15 years ago.
"We're in a place now where we've played some really good cricket over the course of the last five, six or seven years in Test matches in particular.
"And that's more stemmed from that transition period."
Khawaja himself though insists his end is not nigh at age 35, as he nears on the most prolific calendar year by any Australian his age.
The opener only returned to the Test team earlier this year, after most thought his career was over when dropped in 2019.
"Ian Chappell was telling me I'm only good against poor bowling, and not good bowling," Khawaja said.
"I've had people saying a lot of negative things my whole career but the same thing applies when people tell me I'm too old.
"We'll see about that. If I'm performing you can't tell me age has (anything) to do with it.
"When my time is up I feel like I'll know but I don't feel like it's any time soon."
Meanwhile, captain Cummins also has transition on his mind while confident there is depth there to help.
The 29-year-old reiterated on Tuesday he plans to hand over the captaincy before he eventually retires, while also backing earlier calls from Khawaja for coaches to have a limited four-year term.
"In the next six or seven months we have got 15 Test matches, hopefully there won't be any turnover before that but of course it is coming," Cummins said.
