James Siddons, the new head coach of Bangladesh, plans to make his side a highly competitive unit in Test and one-day cricket.

The former Australia assistant coach has signed a two-and-a-half contract and will take up the post on November 25. His first challenge will be a tour of New Zealand that includes two Tests and three one-day internationals.

“I’ve got some visions for the team,” said Siddons, 43, the replacement for Dav Whatmore, who resigned in May. “Everything we do will be towards improving the team and see it gets better day by day.”

Bangladesh have had several good one-day results. They have beaten Australia, South Africa, India and Pakistan, and advanced to the second round of the World Cup for the first time earlier this year.

However, their Test record is poor. In the 49 matches they have played since gaining Test status in 2000, their only victory came at home to Zimbabwe in 2005.

Siddons said: “I’ve got a lot of ideas and it’s an opportunity to start my philosophy and coaching techniques with the side. Hopefully, they’ll be a better outfit, play some good cricket and win some matches."

Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu, chairman of the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s operations committee, said Siddons was appointed partly for his experience as a batsman. Between 1984 and 2000, he scored 11,587 first-class runs for Victoria and South Australia at an average of 44.91. He did not play Test cricket but did play one one-day international for Australia in 1988.

Lipu said: “Batting is our weak area. Siddons was a very good batsman. We hope our batting improves significantly under him. Our cricket has been suffering from inconsistencies for long. We hope he can fix it up."

Four other Australians are in charge of Test-playing nations: John Dyson (West Indies), Geoff Lawson (Pakistan), Trevor Bayliss (Sri Lanka) and Tim Nielsen (Australia).

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