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Kyrgios, an avid basketball fan, had been scheduled to make a promotional appearance at a training session with NBL team Melbourne United on Tuesday but withdrew.

There was also no place in the team for world No.48 Ebden. Australia’s third-ranked singles player leading into the Open behind de Minaur (ranked 29th) and Millman (37th), the 31-year-old has revealed concerns around communication in the Davis Cup set-up after being knocked out in the second round at Melbourne Park by Rafael Nadal.

Ebden’s comments last week followed Bernard Tomic’s savage criticism of Hewitt, claiming the former world No.1 favoured particular players, was liked by no one and had “ruined the system”.

Hewitt returned serve by alleging Tomic had made physical threats against his family and tried to blackmail him over the past two years, declaring the one-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist would not play Davis Cup again under his watch. The ugly bust-up then escalated further when Tomic’s father claimed Hewitt had traumatised his son as a 17-year-old Davis Cup debutant in 2010 by coming to his hotel room and demanding he tell him who at Tennis Australia was “against” him.

While Hewitt declared Tomic would not play Davis Cup again under his watch, he spoke of his frustrations with Kyrgios last week but could “absolutely” see him returning to the picture for Australia.

Following discontent about him playing doubles in the tie against Austria in Graz last September – Tomic also slammed him for that – Hewitt has also said he won’t play doubles against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The tie is a qualifier for the controversial new 18-nation Davis Cup finals in Madrid in November.
Under the $4 billion transformation of the competition by Spanish investment group Kosmos, Davis Cup ties will be played in a two-day format with best-of-three-sets matches.

Hewitt has not been alone among players unhappy about the overhaul.

“I don't know how this Davis Cup format is going to go, I really don't,” he said.

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“My goal is just to get through Adelaide and get ourselves the best opportunity of going to the final. We'll work out what the best plan of attack is for the final, but we have eight or nine months to do that if we can get there.

“I would like to think that it's going to be a feature piece where a lot of the top players are going to play, but I've heard rumours that they may not either. For me, I will be fielding as strong an Australian team as we possibly can. For me, it's still representing Australia. It's wearing the green and gold. I have guys that would do anything to do that. We're going to use that as our cultural standards ... playing for Australia. We're going to do everything to win.”

Rinky Hijikata, the 17-year-old fifth seed in the Australian Open boys' draw, is expected to be brought in with the squad in Adelaide as a hitting partner. He lost in the third round in bizarre circumstances: on match point, he forgot an experimental rule being used in juniors here that allows play to go on with let serves that land in the service court.

Tennis Australia is expected to mount a review of its Davis Cup set-up after the tie Memorial Drive tie on February 1 and 2.