Australia coach Justin Langer has backed Australia’s Test captain, Tim Paine who feels the wicketkeeper-batsman can continue his role, at least until the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in 2021. As per the points table, India and Australia are favourites to play the final game.
“Truthfully, I can’t see one reason why he wouldn’t. His last game – you judge on his last performance – he was probably pushing to be Man of the Match. He had eight dismissals, 70-odd with the bat, and the way he played his innings was what was most exciting. The way he leads the group. I just literally can’t think of one reason at the moment, he’s so fit, as to why he wouldn’t keep playing for as long as he wants to or needs to,” said Langer.
“The truth is there’s been conjecture from outside, there’s never been one millisecond of conjecture from within our team,” Langer further added. “I said at the start of the summer, he’s almost our most important player, because he’s a very good leader, his captaincy is excellent, he’s the best wicketkeeper in the world, he’s as fit as anyone in the group and we knew that if he believed he could bat as well as we think he can then you’ll see results like we did in the last Test and at times during the Ashes.”
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“There’s always a bit of conjecture, but certainly not within our camp. I hope he plays for as long as he possibly can because his leadership has been brilliant, working with the leadership group, I love working with him,” Langer shared.
Meanwhile, Justin Langer did not rule out the idea of Mitchell Swepson playing in the New Year’s Test against New Zealand at the SCG. However, he backed Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head for the game while keeping the pitch in mind.
“It’s certainly an option,” Langer said about Swepson. “That’s how we have to look at it – we’re talking about finding another allrounder in Australian cricket – well it might give us an opportunity to bowl Marnus and Travis Head a few overs, to find those extra overs we’re looking for.
“Every time Marnus gets the ball in his hand, it’s pretty exciting. He’s working hard on getting his lines right, so he makes them play a bit more, but he’s an exciting prospect, the way he spins the ball, and the more he can bowl in games that’s important. It will be hard to make changes, that said I think it’s really important that we wait because we’ve seen it in the Shield games and the groundsman is telling us he’s expecting it to spin, so we have to respect that. We’ll wait and see over the next two days what the wicket looks like,” Justin Langer concluded.
