Australia’s head coach Justin Langer backed his side and said the team will bounce back from the semi-final setback at the hands of England, which ended their 2019 World Cup campaign.
“It was just a really disappointing day for us but it’s been a really good campaign. Don’t underestimate the injury to Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh. We had picked Khawaja specifically for days like these when it’s hard, you lose an early wicket, you want that no.3, your Test no.3 to score hundreds.”
“I’ve had my heart set on July 14 for the past 12 months and we got till July 11, we fell a few days short so obviously it’s disappointing. I’d rather be in England’s dressing room now, its always more fun winning rather than losing, but we have to turn it now.”
He added the team needs to quickly dust off the memories and charge up as engrossing Ashes campaign is next door, starts in Edgbaston on August 1.
A lot of questions were raised on Handscomb's inclusion and lack of depth in the batting order in the Australian side, but Langer brushed everything aside and said there is no scarcity of talent and moreover injury to big players will hurt to any team.
“Pete came in for one game, he came in for a World Cup semi-final. He helped us win an unbelievable series in India, he helped us win 5-0 against Pakistan, and then was really, really unlucky. Then to have to come into a World Cup having not played any of the games it’s a really tough ask on him and it would've been for any of our players."
"When Jason Roy was out of England's side, it made a big impact. You take your best players out of any team, whether its cricket or AFL or rugby, it's always hard when you lose your best players. There's plenty of talent in Australian cricket, no doubt about that. We're seeing that in Australia A stuff at the moment, we're going to play 24 guys in two Australian teams leading up to the Ashes, there's plenty of talent there, we just didn't play as well as we should have."
All-rounders Maxwell and Stoinis turned out to be the biggest disappointments for Australia, as both the all-rounders struggled with their respective form throughout the World Cup.
Maxwell managed to score just 177 runs in at an average of 22.12 and failed to scalp a wicket, while Stoinis could manage just 87 runs in 10 games at an average of 14.50 and picked seven wickets.
“They’ll both be really disappointed with the World Cup they had. They were working really hard, giving it their best shot, but sometimes when your confidence is down a bit and it's not something you can just flick a switch and you're back and firing.
"They still contributed - I think they were three and four in the fielding rankings, they've had little moments where they've had an impact. They'll be disappointed, there are a few guys who'll be a bit disappointed but there have been a lot more positives than negatives I think.”
Langer was confident that the duo Warner and Smith will continue their World Cup form in upcoming Ashes.
"Hopefully they get up to speed as they did with the white ball," said Langer.
(With Inputs from CricketNext)
