Australia head coach Justin Langer has on Wednesday (July 28) denied that his team is lagging behind rivals England and India in terms of talent depth after their T20I series defeat in the West Indies.
Recently, England showcased their impressive limited-overs talent pool in their recent home series against Pakistan, winning the ODI series 3-0 with a replacement team and T20I series 2-1 as well, India’s second team has already won the ODI series and is on the verge to win the T20I series against Sri Lanka.
On the other hand, Australia has recently suffered a T20I series loss 4-1 to West Indies before winning the ODI series 2-1 earlier this week and the defeat raised questions on their depth of talent.
Langer told cricket.com.au when he was asked if Australia were falling behind England and India, “No I don't actually. I came out of the T20 series with some real perspective. Our guys hadn't played any cricket for three months and it's so hard to come off no cricket – you can have as many nets as you like, you can have practice games, but you can't (simulate match practice).”
He further explained, “The West Indies had come off a series against South Africa; they were a bit more battle-hardened. I thought there were some really good signs, we were close in that series, and we were close in that first (T20I). There were some really good signs coming out of that I thought.
Every single time we have a selection meeting - it's so hard in Australian cricket because there are so many guys you could pick. That's really positive. There's no way I'd say we're behind India and England in terms of talent. We've just got to get them some experience.”
On Australia’s performance in T20Is, the coach noted, “Australian cricket has ticked so many boxes (but) we haven't won a T20 World Cup, we haven't been dominant in that format. We've gotten better and better, we've had a couple of tough series with some complications and some challenges. But it was only a few months ago that we were ranked No.1 in the world (in T20Is) and we're very proud of that.”
Langer concluded, “The Big Bash is a great competition to keep developing our young Australian players, that's really important for Australian cricket. I think it's really important the BBL does that for us as the IPL does for India … That will help us be a very good T20 side when the boys are all available.”
(inputs from cricket.com.au)
