Langer must make tough calls to rebuild Aussies
Justin Langer’s appointment on a four-year contract as Australia’s new coach capped a week when Cricket Australia began to rehabilitate its brand, but intriguing questions remain.
Langer, the tough-as-teak former opening batsman who took a decade to finally secure his spot in the test team, is seen as the man who will regenerate on-field performances and, more importantly, begin to repair a culture that spiralled out of control in Cape Town during the ill-fated series against South Africa.
Now officially in charge with a home test series against India, a World Cup in England and an Ashes series also in the Old Dart all on the horizon over the next 16 months, Langer, as coach and selector, will have a major say in several decisions.
He must decide whether those assistants who served under predecessor Darren Lehmann – batting coach Graeme Hick, fielding coach Brad Haddin and bowling coach David Saker – are in his longterm plans. CA has confirmed to Fairfax Media the trio are contracted through until the end of the 2019 Ashes but there could be changes in the meantime. Just what is said about the coaches in the two cultural reviews underway, one of the team and one of the governing body itself, could impact on the trio. Just how they all perform – and get along – during the one-day series against England in June will also be important.
Langer will also have a say who captains the one-day team, set to be announced next week. He had made it clear he wanted to coach in all three formats, particularly over the next year, to ensure a consistent voice was heard and he could set the parameters in terms of the team’s on-field approach.
Tim Paine will be test captain over the next year and, with a focus on one-day cricket during this period, it makes sense for him to also be one-day skipper. That, as one cricket insider noted, would help Langer and Paine’s message to permeate, and continue the reforms Paine made when he took charge in the final test against the Proteas in Johannesburg.
Any fears of a Paine burn-out could be eased by breaks during the home summer.
Aaron Finch is also in the frame to take charge of the one-day team – he had led the Twenty20 side between 2014 and 2016 – but Langer is understood to have expressed some concerns about his training An explosive fifth-wicket partnership has helped Mitchell McClenaghan’s Mumbai Indians to an unlikely IPL victory over Chris Gayle’s Kings XI Punjab.
The six-wicket win, just Mumbai’s third of the tournament, kept their playoff hopes mathematically alive.
Gayle scored his third halfcentury of the competition with 50 off 38 balls at Indore yesterday as Punjab totalled 174-6 after being put in to bat.
In replay, the visiting Indians were in dire straits when Hardik Pandya lost his middle stump to a wild swing at Andrew Tye in the 16th over. Pandya’s brother, Krunal Pandya, joined Rohit Sharma with 55 required from just 27 balls.
The pair blitzed 56 runs off 21 balls for Mumbai Indians to stun Kings XI Punjab by six wickets, with six balls to spare. - with AP
habits. Whether that view has changed, we may soon know. Ideally, the new one-day international skipper can remain through next year’s World Cup but captaincy in the 50-over format is not as demanding as Tests, so a change between now and then would not be catastrophic.
Langer was quick to mention Bob Simpson, Australia’s first specialist coach, at his introductory press conference on Thursday. Of Australia’s seven coaches since the position was created in 1986, Simpson is still regarded by many to have had the greatest influence for the team he inherited had been decimated by retirements and a rebel tour to South Africa.
His successor Geoff Marsh had little say under Mark Taylor’s captaincy, John Buchanan helped a good team become great, Tim Nielsen inherited a fading unit, Mickey Arthur was seen as too soft while Lehmann, ultimately, was seen to be too aggressive.
Simpson was coach when Langer made his test debut in a gutwrenching loss to the West Indies in Adelaide in 1992-93 in a team that was two years away from being the world’s best.
Langer, who will be good for a quote, will have a grace period over summer for expectations won’t be as great without Steve Smith and David Warner – the team’s two best batsmen – and opener Cameron Bancroft, who have all yet to be told what their 100 hours of community service will involve. If Australia does stumble over the next year – and, remember, they still have arguably the world’s most potent pace attack and No 1 spinner – the public will also be expected to temper its reaction. But should Langer then revive fortunes, rectify cultural issues and even claim next year’s World Cup, as Simpson’s side rebounded to do in 1987, Langer has the chance to match Simpson in terms of his legacy.
Sunday Age