Borovec to coach Australia for India T20Is with McDonald resting

Australia coach Andrew McDonald will head home after the ODI World Cup to rest and prepare for the Test summer with assistant coach Andre Borovec set to take charge of the senior team for the first time in the five-match T20I series against India which begins next Thursday in Visakhapatnam.

Australia are already resting five senior players from the series with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and Cameron Green all returning home. The squad will be captained by Matthew Wade.

McDonald is also taking a break ahead of the Test summer starting against Pakistan in Perth on December 14. He also rested from the T20I series against South Africa in late August where assistant Michael Di Venuto took the reins. With Di Venuto also being given a spell following a long year of touring, Borovec will get his first chance to coach the national side.

Borovec, 45, is highly regarded within the Australian team having served a long coaching apprenticeship without playing first-class cricket. He began his coaching career in Victorian grade cricket with Geelong, a club he played 330 matches for over 23 years as a wicketkeeper-batter. He coached McDonald at the club at the back end of his playing career.

Borovec then joined McDonald's coaching staff at Melbourne Renegades and Victoria where he was part of the 2018-19 BBL triumph having been heavily involved in their strategy.

His first secondment with Australia as an assistant coach came in 2021 during the white-ball tours of the Caribbean and Bangladesh. He also toured with Australia on the 2022 tour of Pakistan. He was then added to Australia's coaching staff as a full-time assistant when McDonald took the head coaching role in May 2022.

Since then, Borovec has combined his assistant duties with the Australia team while taking charge of the Australia A program. He coached Australia A on the tour of Sri Lanka in June 2022 and then oversaw the Prime Minister's XI team for the tour game against West Indies in November last year. He also coached Australia A for the tour of New Zealand in April immediately after Australia's Test tour of India.

Borovec did not lead Australia A during the home series against New Zealand A in August and September with Western Australia and Scorchers two-time treble-winning coach Adam Voges taking charge.

The timing of the India T20I series does allow for a state coach to fill in due to Sheffield Shield, Marsh Cup and BBL commitments.

Australia have used coaching secondments regularly in recent years to avoid burnout due to the heavy schedule. Former coach Justin Langer took charge of specific white-ball series during Darren Lehmann's tenure before taking the full-time job in 2018 while McDonald also took charge for several white-ball during Langer's tenure.

Former WA and Victoria coach and current Cricket Australia head of development Lachlan Stevens will also travel to India to assist Borovec.