Australia’s coach Andrew McDonald will head home following the completion of the ODI World Cup to have some rest and prepare for the Test season. The senior team will be led by assistant coach Andre Borovec for the first time in the five-match Twenty20 International series against India.
Andrew McDonald is taking a break before the commencement of the summer Test series against Pakistan in Perth on December 14. In late August, he took a break from the T20I series against South Africa, handing the reins to assistant Michael Di Venuto and Borovec will get his first chance to coach the national side in International cricket.
Five senior players Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh, and Cameron Green are already rested from the series with wicket-keeper batter Matthew Wade leading the team in the five-match T20 series.
Despite not having played first-class cricket, Borovec, 45, underwent a lengthy coaching apprenticeship and is well-liked by the Australian side. He started his coaching career as a wicketkeeper-batter for Geelong, a team he played 330 games for over 23 years and served as McDonald’s club coach.
Following that, Borovec joined the Melbourne Renegades and Victoria coaching staff under McDonald, where he significantly contributed to their strategy and helped them win the 2018–19 BBL championship.
He was originally assigned to Australia in 2021 to serve as an assistant coach for the country’s white-ball trips to Bangladesh and the Caribbean. He went to Pakistan in 2022 as part of Australia’s trip. When McDonald assumed the position of head coach in May 2022, he was subsequently appointed to Australia’s coaching team as a full-time assistant.
The upcoming five-match T20I series will be the first assignment for India and Australia after the high-octane ODI World Cup 2023. Both sides will view it as an opportunity to begin setting the foundation for their 2024 T20 World Cup preparation after a poor performance in the previous T20 World Cup.
The Australian team has already been announced, and Matthew Wade, a seasoned wicketkeeper, will serve as captain with many youngsters in the squad. On the other hand, it is expected that the Men in Blue will choose a second-string squad to rest the senior players after the completion of the marquee event on home soil. On November 23, Vishakapatnam will host the first Twenty20 International (T20I) of the series.