Australia coach Justin Langer has been under heavy scrutiny after the 4-1 defeat against Bangladesh in a five-match T20I series. There have been reports of a rift between the coach and a few players.
Out-of-favor opener Usman Khawaja, however, has backed Langer to continue as the coach through the upcoming 2021-22 Ashes and asked the players to stop undermining him. Notably, Langer and Khawaja had clashed during their tour to UAE in 2018. The clash was captured in the docu-series “The Test.”
"How do you think JL (Justin Langer) feels?" Khawaja asked on his YouTube channel.
"He probably feels like the guys in the team are stabbing him in the back, and that's what it looks like.
That's why it's so disappointing. It's actually a really bad look. This is something the group needs to sort out ASAP. Let's put it into perspective here. It's not always 100 percent the coach's fault. The guys aren't performing, the players have to take onus too at some stage,” he added.
He added that the players had to perform well and not blame just one person.
"The guys have to perform better and at end of day it's not just one person, so I think there needs to be some sort of perspective put around this too," he added.
The reports of a rift between the players and Langer have blown up after Cricket Australia held emergency talks between senior executives and the players to decide on the road map ahead of the T20 World Cup and the Ashes.
Khawaja also spoke about the Indian bowling attack and termed Mohammad Shami as the most underrated bowler.
"In my opinion, the Indian bowling lineup right now is the best bowling lineup in the world, yes there are awesome bowlers all around the world, but that lineup is unbelievable,” he said.
"I think is the most underrated bowler in the world, in my opinion, Mohammad Shami, he's actually a lot quicker than you think.
I think that's one of his skill sets and he always has that seam in a beautiful position but no one really talks about him genuine thing he is such a big part of that bowling lineup and people forget about him," said Khawaja.
(With PTI inputs)
