LANGER’S GRAND PLANS
A WORLD Cup, two Ashes series and plenty more awaits Justin Langer as new Australian cricket coach, but beating India on their home soil remains the “ultimate” goal.
Langer will oversee all three formats of the game for the next four years, having been endorsed by Cricket Australia after Darren Lehmann’s resignation.
The former Test opener will take the reins for next month’s one-day international tour of England and has been tasked with leading the Australian team through a turbulent period without suspended trio, Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.
Improving Australia’s ODI performance will be a key objective for Langer ahead of next year’s World Cup.
The five-game tour will start a busy period for Australia, which includes a home Test series later this year against India, the 2019 Ashes tour and hosting the World Twenty20 tournament in two years.
But Langer has set his sights even further down the track to Australia’s next Test tour of India in 2021.
Australia has not won a Test series in India since 2004, although they performed admirably last year during a 2-1 defeat.
Langer was part of the drought-breaking 2004 triumph and said it remained the highlight of a career during which the Australian team enjoyed enormous success.
“To me, that’s the ultimate,” he said yesterday. “We will judge ourselves on whether we’re a great cricket team if we beat India in India.
“When I look back on my career, the Mount Everest moment was back in 2004 when we finally beat India in India.
“We become a great team if we win overseas and at home, so that would be a big moment for us. That’s something to aspire to.”
Australia hasn’t won a Test series in Asia since beating Sri Lanka 1-0 in 2011. Langer’s side will get the chance to improve their record against subcontinent nations when they play Tests against Pakistan in September or October in the United Arab Emirates.
They will be without their two best batsmen in Smith and Warner, who are serving 12-month bans over the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal.
“We’ve got plenty of talent but you’ve got to have depth, and this 11 months or so gives a few people the opportunity to even make us stronger,” Langer said.