Justin Langer To Head T20 Selection Panel For Australia

Australia head coach Justin Langer has been given an additional responsibility by Cricket Australia (CA). The Australian board has decided to trim down the selection panel to three following the resignation of Mark Waugh.

Australia, however, has not roped in any replacement for Waugh to complete the selection panel. As a result, Justin Langer will now also act as the main selector for T20Is.

The other two members of the selection panel are national selector Trevor Hohns and national talent manager Greg Chappell. Both of them will continue to focus on Tests and One-Day International cricket along with Justin Langer. Cricket Australia also also announced that Big Bash coaches and the state talent managers will also be consulted prior to making selection decisions.

As per the previous structure, Waugh led a two-man panel with former coach Darren Lehmann to pick Australia’s teams for T20 internationals. On the other hand, the structure for Test and ODI selection effectively remains the same.

Pat Howard, the team’s performance manager, insisted that consulting domestic coaches before selection would help in delivering better results.

“We believe the changes to the structure of the selection process will deliver the best possible result for the Australian Men’s Cricket Team across all formats,” he said. “Having a selector focus on the T20 format for the past 18 months was viewed as a success. Particularly as we now sit third in ICC rankings in this format. And we will look to continue this in a slightly modified way.

“This sees Justin take on additional responsibility as both the Head Coach and lead selector in Twenty20 cricket. As we build towards the ICC World T20 in Australia in 2020. Justin has performed a similar role previously while coach of the Perth Scorchers. And has a wealth of knowledge around the Big Bash League and its players.”

Unlike ODIs and Tests to a certain extent, Australia have done quite well in T20Is in recent times. They won the tri-series against New Zealand and England. They lost the one-off T20I in the of England but reached the final of the tri-series in Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, the selection panel’s next task will be to decide Australia’s Test squad for their October series against Pakistan.