'They were honest and open' - Justin Langer on his interaction with Australian players during difficult times

Australia had to go through a tough time in cricket owing to the ball-tampering incident during their tour of South Africa in 2018. Amidst this challenging time, Justin Langer had associated with the team as the head coach. He fetched in a lot of praises from the cricketing fraternity for rebuilding the Australian cricket.

However, the unrest in the dressing room was still there. Langer also had to face a few negative feedbacks over his style of management this year. The coach, however, stated that overall it has been a humbling experience for him. He added that tough periods are meant for learning and the changes could already be seen in the team.

“It’s been an incredibly humbling experience. My experience in life is that often in the most humbling periods are the best periods for learning and growing and that’s certainly the case for me and I’m sure you can feel it already within the team,” Langer said in an interview with Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Justin Langer opens up on the conversation with Australian players

The coach further opened up on his chats with some of the key players of the Australian side. He stated that the chats he had with the team’s Test skipper Tim Paine, limited-overs captain Aaron Finch, and their deputy Pat Cummins were some of the bests he has had in his life.

“They were honest, they were open and I really respect and admire the guys for that. It’s actually led to a greater level of trust believe it or not. I’m enjoying it and I’m sure we and they will get great benefit out of that as we keep moving forward,” Langer asserted.

Langer is currently with the team in the UAE for the T20 World Cup 2021. Australia started its campaign on a positive note by securing victory over South Africa. Post the World Cup the team will head for the Ashes series. The coach’s stint with the team is until mid-2022. He however expressed his willingness on continuing the job.

“I’ve said publicly before that I would. We are incredibly well organized for this (World Cup) campaign and then we get straight into the Ashes. I’m going to put all my attention into that and then we’ll see what happens after that,” the coach said.