I'm a little confused on what your asking for exactly, but I don't think your going to achieve that using templates alone.
Now I only did a quick look into avatars so if anyone notices incorrect information please do let me know.
Avatars are stored in these files:
data/avatars/h/0/1.jpg
data/avatars/l/0/1.jpg
data/avatars/m/0/1.jpg
data/avatars/o/0/1.jpg
data/avatars/s/0/1.jpg
| Folder | Meaning |
| s | small (thumbnail) |
| m | medium |
| l | large |
| h | high-resolution |
| o | original upload |
The file is called
1 this refers to the user id. These are the files you want to swap.
What might be better than manualy editing the avatar files is extending the
src/XF/Template/Compiler/Tag/Avatar.php and modifying this to render in a new tag? I've never done this before though, and i'm unfamiliar with how the compiler works exactly. So i'd suggest looking into the source code before attempting this.