Jake Weatherald is in the box seat to keep his spot as Test opener after he was handed his first national contract in place of youngster Sam Konstas.
Weatherald was among the big winners when Cricket Australia's contract list was announced on Wednesday, with the group cut from 23 to 21 and five players losing their deals.
Quicks Jhye Richardson and Lance Morris missed out after being nursed back from injuries, with Brendan Doggett and Michael Neser taking their place.
Veteran all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has been left off as selectors indicated new talent would be ushered into white-ball squads, while the hard-hitting Matt Short was the other player to fall off.
Todd Murphy also returns to join Matt Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon as spinners among the group ahead of five Tests in India, after being left out last year.
But the major change was the elevation of Weatherald, who emerged from his maiden Test summer with 201 runs at a middling average of 22.33 in the Ashes.
Australia has the biggest 12 months of Test cricket in their history ahead, with two matches against Bangladesh in Darwin and Mackay in August kicking off up to 21 in the space of a year.
And while chief selector George Bailey would not lock Weatherald in on Wednesday, he gave every indication he was front runner to face Bangladesh up north.
"I think we've seen at his best that it can work at that level," Bailey said.
"Bouncing out of that Ashes series he went straight to work on how he could address some of those (technical issues) and hopefully fine-tune his game.
"So it's just about maybe tinkering with a couple of things and just being able to replicate that for longer periods and hopefully across a range of conditions."
Weatherald's selection came as Matt Renshaw was also overlooked, after averaging 49.9 in the Sheffield Shield for Queensland.
Konstas's demotion represents a swift fall after he was used to promote last summer's program, appearing in launches of the new team kit before being dropped for the Ashes.
The 20-year-old then had returns of 660 runs at 33 in the Sheffield Shield, finishing with eight scores above 25 without turning any of them into a half-century for NSW.
"Is he highly talented? Yes. Is he on a journey to become a complete and better player? Yes, as all players are," Bailey said.
"We saw some promising signs towards the back end. He was consistently getting starts.
"At the start of the season there was a lot of chopping and changing around technique and methods at different times.
"It looked like that was settling and he was starting to find his feet."
CRICKET AUSTRALIA MEN'S CONTRACT LIST 2026-27
Xavier Bartlett, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Brendan Doggett, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster, Adam Zampa.
