Stuart MacGill has been given a massive show of support by Australia's selectors, who believe he is the stand-out choice to succeed the retired Shane Warne in the Test team.

MacGill's international future looked cloudy when he was overlooked for the fifth Ashes Test at the spin-friendly SCG, with suggestions he could be overtaken by a younger spinner in Australia's spin pecking order.

The legspinner's previous behavioural problems, including the suspension served at the start of this season for a bust-up with an umpire in a grade match, also appeared to have harmed his chances of adding to his 40 Tests.

MacGill will be nearly 37 and won't have played a Test for 19 months when Australia plays its next Test, against Sri Lanka in November, but chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said Warne's long-time understudy deserved his shot.

"There is no doubt that it's going to be a difficult hole to fill because (Warne's) been so great over such a long time and has won so many Test matches for us," Hilditch said.

"We've been really lucky to have had MacGill.

"He has been a really good Test legspinner and he's going to come into contention at the start of the next series.

"If he's fit and bowling well, he is obviously the person to look for."

Hilditch said MacGill had been considered for all five Ashes Tests, but had missed out because the selectors opted for three fast bowlers plus Warne.

He said MacGill's disciplinary record had no impact on him being overlooked.

"We regard Stuart very highly and to suggest his behaviour prevented him playing, there is no substance to that whatsoever," he said.

"The reason Stuart didn't play was because we wanted to go with the three-pronged pace attack (Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark), which was really instrumental in us regaining the Ashes.

"England has a far better batting side than they showed and that's because of our bowling."

MacGill's cause is also likely to be aided by Hilditch's view that Australia's next group of spinners - including Dan Cullen, Cullen Bailey and Cameron White - all need time to develop.

MacGill has taken 198 Test wickets at an average of 27.21, but has struggled to string together regular appearances because his career coincided with Test cricket's leading wicket-taker.

Hilditch said Australia was likely to stick with a frontline attack of three quicks and a spinner in the future, and will call on either Andrew Symonds or Shane Watson to bowl relief and bat in the top seven.

"We're always going to be looking for some bowling capabilities from inside our top six, so it will be rare that we play five specialist bowlers," he said.

Hilditch said it would be "ridiculous" to believe Australia could effortlessly move on after the retirements of Warne, McGrath, Damien Martyn and Justin Langer, but did not expect any lessening in standards.

"You would never say we don't have high expectations, but when you introduce young players you've just got to support them," he said.

Australia is likely to call on several players to grow into team leaders, notably Lee and Clark assisting the third fast bowler and Matthew Hayden forming a strong union with a new opening partner.

Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait are next in line for the pace roles, while Langer's replacement could be Phil Jaques or Chris Rogers.

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