Former opener and Western Australia coach Justin Langer will get an opportunity to take charge of the Australian team with current coach Darren Lehmann deciding to skip the West Indies tour next year in order to draw plans for improvement of the team on overseas tours.
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Lehmann will not travel to the Caribbean for a triangular ODI series, also featuring the West Indies and South Africa. He will resume coaching duties ahead of the tour of Sri Lanka.
Langer now has a chance to work as interim coach even though the final decision will be up to the team performance chief Pat Howard, according to espncricinfo.
During the break, Lehmann will apparently spend time at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, studying the next crop of players and also formulating plans for the Sri Lanka trip.
After the Ashes defeat this year, Lehmann said he is aware that his partnership with Steven Smith will be assessed on overseas results.
Justin Langer to coach to fill in for Darren Lehmann next year on West Indies tour very well deserved after great 3 seasons with WA.
— Dan Stapleton (@Dan_Stapo) December 27, 2015
“That’s (winning the Ashes in England) still a burning desire,” Lehmann said. “I think we let ourselves down this year, 2013 was a different scenario where we were changing the whole setup, last time was disappointing and you’d love to have a crack at that, but you’re guided by results along the way.
“I’d love us to win on the subcontinent for a start and play better there. The (World) T20 is another one… we’re trying to be the most dynamic side we can be in terms of making sure we can play in all conditions.
“You’ll only see that when we go away I suppose, New Zealand’s going to be different to Australia, the wickets will seam a lot more, then you’ve got to go to Sri Lanka where they’ll spin, so we’ve got to make them play all round so they can play in all conditions.”
After the ongoing West Indies series, Australia play five ODIs and three T20s at home against India, before the Test and ODI trip to New Zealand, a T20 series in South Africa and then the World T20 in India.
