LANGER READY TO CRACK THE WHIP

JUSTIN Langer has used a nine-day break between games to put his troops through some rigorous fitness testing to see who has the “resilience” for a winter campaign in England.

After a history-making oneday series win in India last week, the players flew to Dubai to prepare for the next fivegame series against Pakistan which begins on Friday.

Two days were spent welcoming banned batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner back in to the fold, before Langer put his players back to work.

Australia has a massive few months coming up with the World Cup followed by the Ashes, having already completed a huge home summer.

Langer has only been in charge for 10 months but Australia has already played 41 matches during that time.

Some players, including Australian one-day player of the year Marcus Stoinis, will head to the Indian Premier League after the Pakistan series, before World Cup warmup games in Brisbane in May.

Langer has made fitness a priority and the players regularly endure four hour training sessions.

With a small window between games the coach said it was important to find out what level his players were at with another three months of constant cricket on the calendar.

The final Ashes Test at the Oval begins on September 12.

“We need really strong, resilient players to get through a World Cup and the Ashes,” Langer said.

“It will be interesting to see where they are at with that, what they need to work on to be those elite fit athletes we are going to need to win those two tournaments.”

The break in play had also allowed for some reflection after a full-on 12 months.