IND vs AUS | Andrew McDonald to take over head coach responsibility for India series, confirms Justin Langer

After a successful and hectic 2019 which saw Australia reach the semi-final of the World Cup, retain the Ashes on English soil and complete a 5-0 clean sweep in the home summer, head coach Justin Langer is all set to take a well-deserved break from the game, with newly-appointed assistant coach Andrew McDonald set to take over the reins for the 3 ODIs against India that will commence on January 14. 

Langer, in an interview on Tuesday, confirmed that the 38-year-old Victorian will be heading the Aussie team in India, and lavished praise on McDonald, stating that the India tour will be a golden opportunity for the former Aussie all-rounder.

“He’s an excellent coach, we’ve got other excellent coaches to back him up. I said to him I won’t ring him, I’ll let him go. He said ‘I might ring you’, that’s the difference. He’ll do a really good job,” Langer told Sydney Morning Herald, reported Sporstar.

“I said to him this morning, ‘we’re not reinventing the wheel’ He’s got a really good opportunity,” the Australian coach added.

The Aussie coach also expressed his delight over the performance of the incumbent coaching staff, who have also played an integral part in rebuilding the team over the course of the last 18 months. 

“I’m so confident in our coaching staff now with the cricket side of things. A lot of the time now I think about the cricket 30 per cent of the time, the rest of the time all the other stuff that goes with it: the bigger picture, the cultural stuff,” the Aussie coach praised the coaching staff.

Furthermore, the 49-year-old believes that the squad for the Bangladesh tour will remain more or less the same, with him expecting no other changes apart from the addition of a spinner and an all-rounder.

"In the spirit of that continuity, it'd be hard to break up that squad. We might add an all-rounder and another spinner because we're going to get spinning conditions," he said of the Bangladesh tour.