JL’s dig fails to ruffle Jofra’s feathers
JUSTIN Langer’s attempts to unsettle Ashes newbie Jofra Archer will have as much impact as shouting at the wind, according to England captain Joe Root.
England’s new X-factor will make his Test and Ashes debut in the second match at Lord’s tonight with the weight of a nation on his shoulders after the defeat at Edgbaston and without injured pace spearhead Jimmy Anderson. ing match in Leeds. But the overriding priority for coach Langer and chairman of selectors Hohns this week is victory, which would put their team in the box seat to complete Australia’s first away Ashes triumph since 2001.
No side has ever come back from 2-0 down to win a Test series since Don Bradman’s Australia in the 1936-37 Ashes.
Hazlewood outperformed Starc in the recent tour game against Worcestershire, exercising great control in his best performance since suffering a serious back injury in January.
The right-armer is expected to get the nod.
Langer did his best to add to that burden when the Australian coach said he would be “curious” to see if Archer had the stamina to see out a fiveday game, having made his name as a white-ball bowler.
“That’s the question in Test cricket; do you have the mental toughness, do you have the physical endurance to play well in Test cricket?” Langer said. “He [Archer] is an incredible athlete, but Test cricket is very different.”
It slightly ruffled the 24year-old, but the Barbadosborn quick, who bowled 50 overs in his county championship debut for Sussex in 2016, declared Langer had “another thing coming” because he couldn’t be more Test ready.
Root was not flustered at all and said his new Test teammate was so confident and relaxed — he was asleep in the dressing room moments before his World Cup debut at The Oval — that he would cause “a lot of problems” for Australia.
“He’s very confident, which is great, someone coming in with that attitude is just what you want,” Root said.
“He offers something different. Obviously that extra bit of pace as well. He gets the ball moving around both ways, and you factor that in with the pace he bowls, and he’ll cause a lot of problems.
“And he’s very relaxed. For a young man he’s very mature in terms of cricket, which is a great quality to have.”
Australian captain Tim Paine played with Archer at the Hobart Hurricanes during the Big Bash and said only a “bad night on Fortnite on the PlayStation” upset him.
But Paine echoed Langer’s thoughts and said the Australians had to make him bowl “a lot of overs”.
“Test match cricket is a different beast, it’s up to us to put him under pressure, whether that’s physically and making him bowl a lot of overs and make him back up day after day,” Paine said.