Tim Paine, Australia Test captain has backed under-fire coach Justin Langer and vowed the players will work with former opener over the next six months following a “robust” emergency zoom meeting between Cricket Australia’s leaders on Wednesday.
Tim Paine Supports Justin Langer Despite Heavy T20I Series Losses To West Indies And Bangladesh
Test skipper Tim Paine said he and other senior players had cleared the air with Justin Langer and that the coach was not to blame for the team’s recent setbacks in the West Indies and Bangladesh.
“It was important that myself, Aaron Finch, Pat Cummins, and the leaders of Australian cricket got around him, discussed things that needed to be discussed, and then got around him and supported him to move forward,” Tim Paine said on radio station SEN Hobart on Friday.
“The last few days we’ve really been able to galvanize around him, to have some really robust discussions on where we want to take this cricket team, what we expect of him, and what he expects of us, ” said Tim Paine.
Tim Paine’s captaincy and his wicket-keeping standards have come under severe criticism ever since India thrashed Australia 2-1 in the recently-concluded 4 match Test series. Tim Paine has led his country to 11 wins, four draws, and eight defeats. Under Tim Paine’s leadership, Australia has retained the Ashes and won 11 of 23 matches, but has lost two successive home series to India.
Cricket Australia boss Nick Hockley this week said Justin Langer was contracted through to mid-2022 and praised him for helping rally the team when he took over in the wake of the Newlands ball-tampering scandal in 2018.
“It’s been a bit of a shame the last week that a lot of the failings around Australian cricket have been pinned on JL (Langer).”
“That’s certainly not the case. We haven’t lived up to our own standards on the field.”
Matthew Hayden Defended Coach Justin Langer, His Former Opening Partner
“A lot of the content coming out about this is downright disrespectful to a bloke that’s played over 100 Test matches,” he told Melbourne radio station SEN.
“Even this facetious discussion amongst senior players last night …. Umm, hello! What about meeting about the fact you’re number three in test cricket and number three in ODI rankings, and number six in T20 rankings?”
Bangladesh won the first T20I match by 23 runs, recording their first-ever win in the format against Australia in five attempts. Bangladesh then won the second T20I by five wickets, and the third T20I by ten runs.
Therefore, Bangladesh won the series with two matches to spare and recorded their first-ever series win in any format against Australia. Australia won the fourth T20I by three wickets, to avoid a whitewash. However, they lost the final match by 60 runs, with Bangladesh winning the series 4–1. A lot of the batting numbers make for grim reading, even factoring in the tough conditions in Dhaka.
Moises Henriques (135 runs at 13.50), Matthew Wade (129 runs at 12.90), Alex Carey (57 runs at 8.14), Josh Philippe (33 runs at 6.60), Ben McDermott (66 runs at 13.20), and Ashton Turner (51 runs at 10.20) didn’t have trips to remember.