"I’m getting stronger and wiser by the day. We keep rolling our sleeves up. It’s a tough gig but we’re up for the challenge, that’s for sure.”

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Langer has compared his emotional roller-coaster to two “dark periods” when he got dropped from the Test team as a player in 1993 and 2001 before finishing his career as an Australian great.

As one of three selectors, Langer has copped his fair share of criticism and said he sympathised with a string of players on the cusp of playing Test selection who were overlooked for the Sri Lanka series.

Matthew Wade’s omission has been a talking point throughout the summer and the left-hander expressed his frustration further on Monday night after blasting an unbeaten 84 from 49 balls for the Hobart Hurricanes.

It comes after Australian selectors back-flipped by parachuting Kurtis Patterson into the Test squad following two separate hundreds after initially saying he would not be brought in at late notice.

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“It’s just hard,” Wade said. “I get told one thing and then I see the comments in the paper the next day about Kurtis, about piling runs on and getting picked. It's a little bit frustrating ... I'm not sure what is going on.

"I don't think I'm just talking for myself, I think all players around the country. If the [criterion] is hundreds and scoring runs, then pick the guys that are doing it. If that is not the criteria, then let us know."

The headlines and public discontent are clearly getting to Langer and a loss to Sri Lanka would only sharpen the knives.

“It’s relentless,” he said. “Matty Wade is a good example. I watched him play last night, he played brilliantly well. He’s played fantastic and he’s going great guns in first-class cricket and I feel like giving him a hug. I’ve been in his shoes. It’s really hard. It’s playing out in the media. It’s more my style not to play out things in the media and more to have quiet conversations.

“I think I got a bit grumpy with a journo in Sydney [at a press conference] because he kept hounding me about Maxy’s [Glenn Maxwell's] non-selection in the Australian A tour about 12 months ago. We’re getting completely smashed by some journos and I think I just looked at him, I didn’t say much.

"I’m human, we’re all human. [There are] challenges but I wouldn’t be doing anything different. I’m a very lucky person to be in this privileged position but it is a tough gig."