Coach left behind with COVID as Aussies fly out to Sri Lanka

Australia's first tour of Sri Lanka in six years has hit a hurdle before the squad's departure, with new head coach Andrew McDonald testing positive for COVID-19.

McDonald returned the positive test on Tuesday afternoon ahead of Australia's T20 squad's departure to the island nation today, the first series since McDonald was appointed the permanent successor to Justin Langer.

McDonald, who was interim head coach on the team's successful tour of Pakistan earlier this year, will remain in Melbourne under isolation for seven days. 

Assistant coach Michael Di Venuto will coach the squad for the start of the T20 series with McDonald due to link up with the team in Colombo ahead of the second T20. 

Players in the ODI and Australia A squads are set to fly in later this week, with the first match of the tour next Tuesday, June 7 (11.30pm AEST, Fox Cricket and Kayo) and the second played the following evening.

Despite widespread fuel shortages across the island amid a crippling economic crisis, including scarcity of diesel for generators that power the light towers, the white-ball matches will all be played as day-night affairs.

"The matches are taking place as scheduled," Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Mohan de Silva told local outlet Daily Mirror, adding: "We also have to consider the requirements of the broadcast partner."

Australia will take a new-look backroom set-up to Sri Lanka, with three new assistant coaches, a new physiotherapist and a new psychologist on board.

Former Test and Victoria seamer Clint McKay will be part of the coaching staff for the T20 and ODI component of the tour, joining Di Venuto and spin coach Sri Sriram.

New Zealand icon Daniel Vettori and ex Victoria and Melbourne Renegades assistant Andre Borovec will then start their tenure as full-time assistant coaches for the two-Test series in Galle that begins on June 29.

Borovec will also coach Australia A for their matches against Sri Lanka A prior to the Tests, assisted by Sunny Kaliyar, whose usual role is a performance analyst with the women's team.

Ben Sawyer, an assistant coach under Matthew Mott for Australia's women's team, has pulled out of his role as an assistant with Australia A after landing a job as head coach of New Zealand's women's team.

Nick Jones has joined the Australia men's team staff as physiotherapist after a previous stint at the WACA, following the departure of David Beakley ahead of the Pakistan tour.

Psychologist Mary Spillane, who has worked with Cricket Victoria and is the mental health lead at the Australian Institute of Sport, rounds out the new additions to the support staff, replacing the long-serving former psych, Michael Lloyd.

McDonald, who wanted the job across all three formats, has previously spoken of his willingness to delegate to assistants over his tenure after signing a four-year deal.

"The great challenge for coaches and players is to manage your workload across the four years," McDonald said.

"I'd like to think I have the coaching staff to step-up, and we can elevate certain coaches at different times to take on different tours and different challenges.

"While doing that it's only growing the depth of our coaching staff…coaches will get exposed along the journey to help out the workload which is quite significant for a head coach."

Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch will be under scrutiny during the three-match T20 series as he battles through a "reasonably lean patch" with the T20 World Cup on home soil looming in October.

Finch made scores of 23, 0 and 0 in the three-match ODI series against Pakistan in March-April but capped off the tour with a 55 in the sole T20I.

He also had three single-figure scores in five innings for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL but did strike 58 off 28 balls in a game against beaten finalists Rajasthan Royals amidst that run.

He was out lbw for a duck in consecutive innings in Pakistan, and said this week that his "technique started to get a little bit too open".

"When you're worried about the ball swinging back in your front pad, you can tend to open up which then has a bit of a flow-on effect," Finch said on Monday.

"I just lost the ability to transfer my weight back through the ball … but (I'm working on) squaring up my technique (through) my hips and shoulders and feet.

"I've been through that plenty of times in my career. At times, you go through stages where you get a heap runs in a hurry and then go through some lean patches."

Joining the T20 squad on today's flight will be IPL winner Matthew Wade, who had two days at home in Tasmania to swap his gear from a Gujarat Titans kit bag to an Australian one.

The 16th Australian to play on the winning side in an IPL final, Wade had a "frustrating" two-month tournament and is looking to return to form ahead of the World Cup that shapes as his international swansong.

"I'll basically just drop my kit off then head back over to Sri Lanka, come back (home) for about a month for some time off, play (England's) Hundred for Birmingham and then seven or eight T20Is between now and the World Cup," Wade said this week.

"I don't think I'll be pushing on too far after that at international level. I'm excited for the next three or four months, it's going to be good time in my life and cricketing life, I'm going to enjoy it for sure."

Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka, 2022

T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner, Matthew Wade

June 7: First T20, Colombo, 11.30pm AEST

June 8: Second T20, Colombo, 11.30pm AEST

June 11: Third T20, Kandy, 11.30pm AEST

ODI squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

June 14: First ODI, Kandy, 7pm AEST 

June 16: Second ODI, Kandy, 7pm AEST

June 19: Third ODI, Colombo, 7pm AEST

June 21: Fourth ODI, Colombo, 7pm AEST

June 24: Fifth ODI, Colombo, 7pm AEST

Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

June 29 - July 3: First Test, Galle, 2.30pm AEST

July 8-12: Second Test, Galle, 2.30pm AEST

All Sri Lanka v Australia matches will be broadcast live in Australia on Fox Cricket and streamed on Kayo

Australia A fixtures

Squad: Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Pete Handscomb, Aaron Hardie, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Henry Hunt, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Nic Maddinson, Todd Murphy, Josh Philippe, Matt Renshaw, Jhye Richardson, Tanveer Sangha, Mark Steketee

June 8: First one-day game v Sri Lanka A, Colombo

June 10: Second one-day game v Sri Lanka A, Colombo

June 14-17: first-class tour match v Sri Lanka A, Hambantota

June 21-24: first-class tour match v Sri Lanka A, Hambantota