BOUNCER WARNING
LANGER’S EDICT: Short-pitch shootout isn’t part of the plan
JUSTIN Langer is adamant this Ashes won’t turn into a battle of the bouncers as it emerged Jofra Archer may have had retribution in mind when unleashing hell at Lord’s.
The drawn second Test was a short-pitched shootout in London, where Archer was in his element on debut, and the expectation is there will be more of the same when the series continues in Leeds tonight.
But Australia coach Langer made it clear his team has more interest in retaining the urn with a win rather than getting “caught up in an emotional battle of who’s going to bowl the quickest bouncers”.
Batsmen from both sides wore plenty of bruising blows on the body, arm and head at the home of cricket — the most frightening of which came when Archer struck Steve Smith’s exposed neck.
Tim Paine joked last week that “a bad night on (video game) Fortnite” would be the only way to fire up Archer but it seems a bouncer barrage from Pat Cummins may have done the job.
“I know for a fact he was counting (the number of short balls),” Jimmy Anderson said on his Tailenders podcast.
“He mentioned that he saw a pitch map of Cummins to him and there were two length balls and the rest were in the short zone. He obviously was aware of that.”
The brutal narrative of the past week continued in the nets this week, when both sides trained at Headingley for the first time since shifting north.
Marnus Labuschagne copped some friendly fire from Mitchell Starc, who struck him on the grille like Archer did at Lord’s, while England opener Jason Roy underwent a concussion assessment after being hit.
The tourists are expected to resist any urge to recall Starc, whose strong suit is bounce, but James Pattinson is likely to return to the XI.
Australia is set to stick with the top six that secured a draw at Lord’s, while Langer made it clear his attack wanted to win the Test rather than “see how many helmets we can hit … or how many bruises we can give”.
“It’s not an ego game, you’ve got to just keep trusting your skill,” Langer said.
“The wicket will be quite slow, it’s not going to be as fast as some of the other wickets we’ve seen.
“I’m sure the bouncer will still be part of every bowler’s armoury, if it helps us get batsmen out then we’ll use it, otherwise we’ll keep sticking to the plan.”
Anderson, who was at Lord’s continuing his recovery from a calf injury last week, became the latest high-profile figure to heap immense praise on Archer.