Darren Lehmann hints he may ditch limited-overs role

Australia head coach Darren Lehmann has said the packed international cricket calendar may leave him with no choice but to hand over the responsibility of the country's limited-over sides and focus solely on Tests.

The 47-year-old has recently made a return to his role for the upcoming Ashes series, after having missed several ODI and T20 series in recent years, including Australia's just-ended tour of India, because of health issues and a heavy workload.

As a result, bowling coach David Saker stood in as head coach during India series.

"I think it will get to a stage where I'll probably have to look at changing that set-up. I know speaking to (former England coach) Andy Flower for example... he didn't like it so much, but I think the way that the game is going, you've got no choice now," cricket.com.au quoted Lehmann, as saying.

It should be noted that England had experimented with a separate limited-overs coach under flower, however, the roles have since been combined again under Trevor Bayliss.

And Lehmann believes the demand for more international fixtures might force most teams to split the coaching role between the white-ball and red-ball formats in the not-too-distant future.

"You can't split them three ways - Tests, one-dayers and T20. Some of the time there's no point another coach coming in, it's just logistical nightmares, so I think you'd probably go white ball, red ball," Lehmann added.

The Australian coach further said that he could envisage the day when there would be entirely separate Playing XIs for each format.

"Cricket is really getting specialised. You can see a time when down the track... I don't know how many years but there'll be really significant changes and the XIs will be separate for each format or in red-ball and white-ball cricket," Lehmann said.

"And that's happening now anyway, just because it's the only way you can keep the players on the park," he added.

Australia's next assignment is the 2017-18 Ashes series, starting 23 November at Brisbane's Gabba, and Lehmann will be in charge of the side Down Under.

-ANI