McDonald pinpoints his biggest responsibility after taking over as Australian head coach

Newly appointed Australian head coach Andrew McDonald has opined that the greatest challenge for him and his coaching staff will be to manage the workload of all-format players during his tenure.

McDonald was appointed head coach of the Australian men's team on Wednesday for the next four years. 

The 40-year-old has succeeded former coach Justin Langer, under whom he has served as an assistant coach since 2019.

Langer resigned controversially earlier this year, citing a lack of support from the senior players and Cricket Australia top brass after being offered a six-month contract following the Ashes triumph.

"The great challenge for coaches and players is to manage your workload across the four years," McDonald said as quoted by Cricket Australia.

Apart from managing players' workload, McDonald also believes that the rest of his coaching staff needs to step up to be given the responsibility of handling specific tours in the future.

"I'd like to think I have the coaching staff to step up, and we can elevate certain coaches at different times to take on different tours and different challenges," he said.

"While doing that, it's only growing the depth of our coaching staff coaches will get exposed along the journey to help out the workload which is quite significant for a head coach," he added.

McDonald led Australia to their maiden series win in Asia since 2011 during their recent historic tour of Pakistan.

 CA chief Nick Hockley was praised for the new head coach, stating that the 40-year-old has already proved himself in the coveted position.

"Andrew has already shown he is an outstanding head coach and the vision he outlined for the role during the appointment process was both impressive and exciting, making him our clear choice," said Hockley.

"We are proud of the way the team played, and the respect shown throughout the tour of Pakistan under the leadership of Andrew, Pat (Cummins) and Aaron (Finch) and really pleased Andrew is taking on the role permanently," he added.

McDonald led Australia to a 1-0 series win in Tests and backed it up with a victory in the one-off T20I against Pakistan. His next assignment will be a Test series in Sri Lanka later this summer.