Darren Lehmann was gazing down at the SCG from a radio booth as Beau Webster’s punishing drive for four sealed Australia’s mission to wrestle back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, watching on with seemingly no bearing on the outcome of the absorbing five-Test series.

But had the pointed comments made by the former national coach during the third Test prodded selection chief George Bailey in a series-defining direction?

“I think they play too long, a lot of players, or selectors aren’t strong enough to stop players playing … So selection is the art, and that’s where they’ve got to get to … Are players playing too long? History shows in the last little bit maybe they have been,” Lehmann had said on ABC radio.

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“I just know that I was too old, so if I knew that and these guys are now pushing 38, 37, whatever they’re pushing, and they can’t see it because they love it, they want to play for a long period of time, but the next generation — what is the next generation? What are we doing? How are we bringing these new players in?

“… Selectors have to be a little bit stronger, I think. In my opinion he [Bailey] is too close to the team. I would like him sitting up watching in a selector’s box somewhere.”

It wasn’t the first time Bailey’s approach as chairman of selectors, which contrasts sharply to the standoffishness of his predecessor Trevor Hohns, had attracted scrutiny.

But perhaps never before had criticism of Bailey the selector carried so much weight given the status held by Lehmann and Bailey’s relationship with “Boof”, who played 27 Tests in a “golden era” of Australian cricket and coached the side between 2013 and 2018, including teams skippered by Bailey.

The Border-Gavaskar series was locked at 1-1 when Lehmann’s comments, made on day four of the Brisbane Test, stunned the Australian dressing room like a Jasprit Bumrah wonder-ball.

Opening batter Usman Khawaja, who turned 38 during the Gabba Test and did so in dicey form, kept his place in the Australian XI for the entirety of the series, in which he could only muster 184 runs at 20.44.

Lehmann didn’t name any names in his inflammatory radio spiel, but Khawaja was at the front of everyone’s mind as the former coach muttered into his microphone.

Khawaja’s opening partner at the time of Lehmann’s comments was Nathan McSweeney, who had made his Test debut in Perth and arrived in Brisbane with only 59 series runs at 19.66.

Mitchell Marsh was also in the XI when Lehmann critiqued Bailey, despite having scrambled together just 62 runs at 20.66, and 21 overs with the ball, across the first and second Tests.

But between the time of Lehmann’s stirring comments and Australia’s series-winning triumph in Sydney, McSweeney was dumped for Sam Konstas, and Marsh, a much-loved member of the Australian team and a match-winner with the blade on his day, was axed for Webster.

In the wash-up of the SCG finale, in which Australia snatched back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in 10 years, it is indisputable that among the most impactful players in the hosts’ successful series quest were Konstas and Webster.

Until the first morning of the Boxing Day Test, Australia’s top order had had no answer to Bumrah, but India’s beguiling quick was suddenly faced with a problem when Konstas threw up more tricks than a Logan Martin cameo.

Wheeling out an array of audacious strokes against the bowling of Bumrah, including a series of ramp shots, the 19-year-old from Sydney’s south blasted 60 runs from 65 balls in an innings hailed as a “circuit-breaker”.

Amazingly, the brash youngster hit Bumrah, one of the greatest bowlers of all time, out of the attack.

Australia’s selectors kept faith in Marsh for the Melbourne Test, but Bailey and company dropped the popular team man for Webster after the West Australian all-rounder registered scores of just 4 and 0, as well as 10 wicketless overs.

What followed at the SCG was a Test debut of top quality as the man nicknamed “Slug”, who hails from the small Tasmanian town of Snug, made vital contributions of 57 and an unbeaten 39, bowled 17 overs, snared the wicket of first drop Shubman Gill, and impressed in the slips. His down-the-ground clobber to a Washington Sundar ball iced the match in fitting fashion.

Perhaps it’ll never be known by anyone other than Bailey if Lehmann’s comments, which drew a staunch retort from captain Pat Cummins, influenced the decision-making of Australia’s selection chief.

As question marks continue to linger over Khawaja and several other champion but long-in-the-tooth Test incumbents, clues may reveal themselves on the path to the Ashes.