Justin Langer admitted that Steve Smith’s batting helped him in better sleep as Steve Smith has returned in a great zone with the bat and scored the runs during Australia’s second practice game against a New Zealand XI in Brisbane on Wednesday, May 8. Smith has returned to the squad after a one-year ban. He scored unbeaten 89 off 77 and has been in a great form.
“I certainly slept a lot better, it warmed my heart, to be honest,” Langer said while talking about Smith’s unbeaten 89 on SEN’s Whateley program on Thursday. “I watched him on the weekend, he had a nets session on Sunday night and I was sitting with a couple of coaches and I just said ‘How good is this kid’. We’ve seen the statistics and we know the stories but when you see him first hand… “(Wednesday) was a tutorial in batting. It’s great for the team,” he added.
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Along with him, David Warner was also banned for a year and now returned to the squad. Both were present in Australia’s playing XI and they got a grand welcome from everyone.
“I can honestly say I don’t think we could be in a better position,” Langer said. “It’s a bit like facing fast bowling, you worry, worry, worry and once you get out in the middle, it’s ok. The worst time to face fast bowling is in bed the night before,” he said.
“There’s been a huge lead-up to this and the boys have come in so far quite seamlessly. They’ll have some new challenges when we get to England – we really aware of that, they’re really aware of that. But I’m really glad the boys have put the work in because it feels we’re in a really good place,” he added.
“The obvious thing is we should (open with Warner),” Langer said. “But I think he’s quite an adaptable player, too. “What I’ve loved is the partnership between Finchy (captain Aaron Finch) and Usman Khawaja as well. They gel really well and in the past Finch and Warner gelled really well. I’m not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, but we’ve got really good options there,” he said it.
