However having been a regular member of Australian Test touring parties in the previous two years, Bird missed the now-infamous tour of South Africa earlier this year through injury, before then losing his Cricket Australia contract.

Bird fell out of favour after taking 0-108 in the fourth Test of last summer’s Ashes series, as Alastair Cook ground down the Australian attack on a pitch ultimately rated “poor” by the International Cricket Council.

“It was obviously a flat wicket, and it got rated pretty poorly by the ICC,” Bird said.

“But at the end of the day, good players adapt to the conditions that they’re in. I couldn’t do it the couple of days we were out in the field. I guess it’s disappointing if that’s my last Test match, people will remember my Test career like that.

“I came out of that game a few inches shorter I reckon. I bowled into the ground.”

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Bird said he had been mentally freed by a belief he is unlikely to represent his country in the future.

“I’m in a pretty good head space at the moment,’” he said.

“The last couple of years have been funny. I’ve been on a lot of tours and been around the Australian team a lot without actually playing much. I suppose that’s disappointing in that respect.

“I suppose over the last couple of years I’ve been worrying a lot about selection. That sort of weighs you down. It gets pretty boring really. This off-season has been good, I’ve just sort of focused on getting fit, getting strong with Tassie and working on a few things with the guys down in Tassie and just focusing on playing first-class cricket.

“It’s been refreshing really. I’m not really worried about playing for Australia again, if it happens it happens, but if I’m being realistic I’m probably not going to play for Australia again.”

Bird said he had worked hard over the off-season to improve his variations, allowing him to better perform in white-ball cricket, which has not generally been his forte.

“The game’s evolved a lot now. You can’t actually bowl good first-class lengths in the first six overs, because the way batters are these days, it’s too easy to score.”