'I’ve spoken to Justin Langer, absolutely' - Marnus Labuschagne opens up on clearing Australia dressing room air

Marnus Labuschagne has admitted to clearing the recent unjust and tension in the Australian dressing room created by incumbent head coach Justin Langer’s style of coaching ahead of their two important assignments- ICC T20 World Cup 2021 and the Ashes series. Langer has copped a fair bit of criticism due to his tough coaching style. Worse, Australia also lost two series against West Indies and Bangladesh and, the spotlight refuses to go from him.

Recently, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting too had spoken about how Langer should face criticism if he is not getting the results. And now Labuschagne too has spoken about how it was necessary to have those robust conversations with Pat Cummins, Tim Paine, and Aaron Finch, and Langer which was fronted by CEO of CA Nick Hockley and chairman Earl Eddings in a rather not so good circumstance.

“It’s never nice when it comes out like it has, so that’s not how we want to do it,” Labuschagne told The Age. “But we want to make sure that we come together as a team and for those things that have come out, it’s been spoken about that it’s come to a head now and there have been conversations had, and we can all move forward and have our focus on winning this World Cup and retaining the Ashes”.

“I’ve spoken to the coach, absolutely. I’ve been in touch with him in the last couple of weeks and just having a chat with him. I think it’s really nice that those players and coaching and support staff are out of quarantine and can spend a bit of time with their families before what is going to be a massive five months,” he added.

Labuschagne was last seen playing County Championship for Glamorgan. He also seemed in good nick and was almost certain to be included in the limited-overs tours of West Indies and Bangladesh before the management decided otherwise. The 26-year-old further spoke about the upcoming Ashes series and how England players needed to think about the safety of the families on a five-month-long tour.

Marnus Labuschagne feels the mental health of players is important ahead of the Ashes series

“There was a little bit of chatter about that but the welfare of the players and making sure their families can come out here,” Labuschagne said. “Everyone can recognise it, you don’t need to be a cricketer to recognize the importance of making sure the mental health of all the players is in a good space, especially after the World Cup, followed by the Ashes. It’s a really long four-five months.”

“But I have no doubt between the government and Cricket Australia we’ll be able to sort it out and get ourselves in a position where we can have a full-strength England side versus a full-strength Australia side,” he concluded.