Langer plays it coy on line-up

AUSTRALIAN coach Justin Langer is not ruling out more than one change for tomorrow’s fourth Ashes Test.

Langer said the seven days since the heartbreaking defeat in Leeds had been among the toughest of his career, and spirits had to be lifted before he could turn his attention to selecting the team for Old Trafford.

Langer said he was a fan of “continuity”, but knew one of Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja and Matthew Wade had to make way for the returning Steve Smith.

Bowling changes are unlikely, but with Mitchell Starc and even Mitchell Marsh being spoken about, the coach said nothing could be ruled out.

“You don’t like to make too many changes as a rule,” Langer said yesterday.

“You’re always looking to have the best possible team you can. If it means making some changes, you’ve got to make changes.”

Langer was trying to find the “best solution” to win in Manchester and retain the Ashes the team had one hand on a week ago.

“The last week of coaching has probably been one of the most challenging weeks of my coaching career after what happened at Leeds,” he said.

“Everyone in that changeroom, probably a lot of Australians felt it, felt completely sick after that. I actually felt physically sick, and then I went back to my room, I wasn’t sure whether to cry my eyes out or smash my hotel room.

“When so much goes into something … it means a lot.

“That was the biggest part of losing last week, that we felt we were so close and we let it slip. You never like to let opportunities slip in your life.

“All those things you can’t ignore, but you have to find solutions for how we win the next Test match, and that’s the exciting part of coaching.”

The convincing win against Derbyshire last week gave Langer confidence the players were back “up”.

“They were all together, they trained together,’’ he said.

“Sometimes it can become a bit fractured. It’s not going to be fractured here for the next few weeks.”

Hohns suggested England’s success against Australia’s lefthanded batsmen could make playing another right-hander a consideration. But with Smith back, and Marnus Labuschagne locked in, Langer wasn’t convinced that was necessary.

“My view has always been that the best players will adapt and should adapt,’’ he said.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re left or right-handed. If they can’t, then they shouldn’t be in the side. Our boys have to be on top of their games, left or right-handed.”