Australia head coach Justin Langer to take break from India tour

Justin Langer (Twitter)

Sydney, Jan 7:  Australia head coach Justin Langer will be taking a short break when his side travels to India for the upcoming three-match ODI series.

In Langer's absence, senior assistant Andrew McDonald will be taking over the top job for the three ODIs against the Men in Blue. It will be McDonald's first time in charge of the national men's side.

"He's an excellent coach, we've got other excellent coaches to back him up," Sydney Morning Herald quoted Langer as saying.

Langer and the Australian Test side recently completed series swipe against Pakistan and New Zealand. While they blanked Pakistan 2-0 in the two-Test series, they whitewashed the Black Caps 3-0 on Monday.

The first ODI between India and Australia will be played at the Wankhede Stadium on January 14. The remaining two ODIs will be played in Rajkot and Bengaluru on January 17 and 19 respectively.

Squads:

India: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami.

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey (vc), Pat Cummins (vc), Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, David Warner, Adam Zampa