Australian Head Coach Justin Langer is happy to see themselves on the top of the latest updated ICC Test team rankings and T20I team rankings. However, the Australian team has a bigger goal and the Head Coach recently talked about this.
On Friday (1st May), the International Cricket Council (ICC) released the annual update of the team rankings after eliminating the 2016/17 results. Though India were leading the ICC Test team rankings and Pakistan were leading the ICC T20I team rankings before the coronavirus pandemic has forced to stop the international cricket, Australia are now on the top positions in both these rankings.
Justin Langer is happy with this progress in the Test and T20I rankings. However, he has also clarified that the team is focused to win the 2019-21 ICC World Test Championship as well as beating India in the Test series at home in the upcoming summer and later in away.
According to the FTP schedule, when India will tour in Australia in the 2020/21 summer, they will play a Test series. Later, in the 2021/22 season, Australia will tour in India to play the full series, including a Test series. Australia are eyeing to win both these series.
Langer said according to cricket.com.au, “We recognise how fluid these rankings are, but at this time it was certainly nice to put a smile on our faces. Certainly, a goal for us has been the World Test Championship … but ultimately, we have to beat India in India and we’ve got to beat them when they come back [to Australia].”
You can only judge yourself as being the best if you beat the best: Justin Langer
The Head Coach of the present no.1-ranked Test and T20I team believes that the team strength can be judged properly when they beat the best teams.
Langer added, “You can only judge yourself as being the best if you beat the best and we’ve got some really tough opposition to come.”
Langer joined the team as the Head Coach in May 2018 after Darren Lehmann stepped down from that position in the wake of ball-tampering controversy during the 2018 Cape Town Test. Since then, Australia have gradually improved in every format and they are getting now the prize of their consistent success in recent times.
Langer further claimed, “We’ve got lots of work to do to get to be the team that we want to be, but hopefully over the last couple of years not only have we performed well on the field, but also off the field.”