Australian greats back Trevor Bayliss as possible Justin Langer successor

Langer resigned last week as Australia's head coach after rejecting the offer of a short-term contract extension

Australia greats Shane Warne and Mark Waugh have backed Trevor Bayliss to be appointed as head coach for the Australia men's cricket team.

This comes just seven days after Justin Langer left his role as head coach, having turned down a short-term contract extension that would have seen him through to the end of the T20 World Cup later this year.

Bayliss notably coached England's men for four years between 2015 and 2019, overseeing their World Cup victory in 2019. Although they retained a strong record at home in Test cricket under the Australian, who coached Sydney Thunder in this year's Big Bash, England were far from consistent in red-ball cricket.

Waugh suggested Cricket Australia should pick different coaches for Test and white-ball cricket, nominating assistant coach and current interim boss Andrew McDonald for the white-ball role.

"I think if Trevor Bayliss wants to do it, I think he would be the No.1 seed to take over, definitely in red-ball cricket," said Waugh, speaking on Fox Sport during Australia's T20I win over Sri Lanka.

^{Bayliss in conversation with David Warner during the 2019 Ashes series (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)}

"I see him being the red ball coach, and I see maybe Andrew McDonald being the-white ball coach. Have a white-ball coach and a red ball coach."

However, Warne disagreed with his former team-mate, arguing that since Langer had brought success across all formats of the game and that the next coach should be given the same responsibility.

He said: "In an ideal world, you’d have one coach for everything, in my opinion."

Under Langer, Australia won the T20 World Cup in 2021, before sealing an Ashes series win on home soil a few months later, having drawn the 2019 series.

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