Voges was playing for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League till February this year, and played his last first-class match as recently as in September 2017. Once his playing days came to an end, Voges turned to coaching, and spent time with a Perth-based academy, so the elevation to the top job at Western Australia (WA) and the Scorchers came rather quickly.

He takes over the position left vacant after an upheaval in Australian cricket led to Darren Lehmann quitting as head coach of the national team and Langer, the WA and Scorchers coach, replacing him.

“Throughout my captaincy journey [Voges led WA from 2007 till the end of his career] I guess I’ve been unwittingly preparing for something like this. To be involved in the planning, in the selection process, and a lot of the meetings that you go to as captain, you certainly get a feel for what the coaching landscape is like. And it’s something I’ve always been interested in.”

Langer, who scored 7,696 runs in 105 Test matches at an average of 45.27, retired from the game in 2007 and became WA coach soon after, leading the team to two second-place finishes in the Sheffield Shield, while also scooping three Big Bash League title runs for the Scorchers.

“Justin’s done a terrific job with this programme and with this group for the last six years and that’s the reason why he’s the Australian coach now,” said Voges. “But what he leaves is some great values, some great structures and some excellent people here.

“The fact that is I don’t have that experience with the title ‘coach’ next to my name, although I have a lot of leadership experience, particularly with this group. It’s just learning about a lot of the things that as a player you don’t see day in, day out.

“As a player, you worry about looking after yourself. As a captain, you probably worry about looking after your team but as a coach you’ve got a lot more responsibility than that.”