Justin Langer says Aussies team should stick with Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney
Justin Langer doesn’t believe Australia will make any batting changes for next week’s crunch Boxing Day Test but says the top order have some questions to answer.
And they surround Indian new-ball weapon Jasprit Bumrah, who has had the wood over Australia in all three matches this series.
Langer, who faced a generation’s worth of the world’s best fast bowlers, says Bumrah reminds him of Pakistan champion Wasim Akram, who he declared was his least favourite bowler to face.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Australia’s top three all failed to fire in the third Test in Brisbane, which ended in a draw on Wednesday, with the spotlight now trained on battling opener Usman Khawaja.
Makeshift opener Nathan McSweeney and No.3 Marnus Labuschagne have also been under the pump already this summer.
But Langer doesn’t predict Australia will move on any of its batters for the Test in Melbourne from Thursday.
“I can’t see them making any changes now at 1-1 in the series,” he told The Nightly.
“There will be some discussions about a few players, but my gut feeling is they will keep it the same.”
Batting at No.6 and largely free of Bumrah’s swing rampages, Travis Head has scored just one less run than the rest of Australia’s top six combined so far this series.
Khawaja’s 21 in the first innings at the Gabba was his only score higher than 13 for the summer. He has been dismissed by Bumrah four out of five times.
Bumrah has taken 21 wickets and is easily the best bowler in the series, seven clear of Mitchell Starc. Those scalps have come at the eye-watering average of 10.90 a five-haul in his brutal first-innings blitz in Perth and a six-fer in Brisbane.
“I would hate to face him. He is like Wasim Akram,” said Langer, who will be part of Channel 7’s broadcast team for the Boxing Day Test.
“For me, he is a right-hand version of Wasim Akram, and every time I am asked the question ‘who is the best bowler you have ever faced’, I say Wasim Akram.
“They have got good pace and the great bowlers just hit the same spot every time, and they have got a good bouncer, so it makes them a bloody nightmare.
“He has got the ability to swing the ball both ways, his seam is literally picture perfect. If you present a perfect seam and it comes perfectly out of the fingers like it does with him, you get the double whammy, swing in the right conditions and if it hits the rope it can go either way.
“That’s what Akram used to do and we was a nightmare to face. I would hate to face Bumrah.
“He’s a great competitor, he bowls good pace and he’s just awesome.”
There was a fitness cloud surrounding Bumrah before the Brisbane Test as he battled with a groin issue. Langer says keeping their opening bowler fit could be the key to India leaving Australia with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the third consecutive tour.
“I said at the start of the series, if Bumrah stays fit, it is going to be a really tough summer for the Australian batters, if he doesn’t, then I think Australia will win the series easily, and I still maintain that,” he said.
Langer said he was surprised by the sudden retirement of Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin after play on Wednesday because he felt the visitors would turn to him for at least one of the two remaining Tests.
The champion spinner, who played 106 Tests for India, said on Wednesday night he was retiring because he was not part of the team’s plans for this series.
“I was suprised Ashwin retired because I thought they would use him and (Ravindra) Jadeja — go to their their big guns for maybe Melbourne and definitely Sydney,” Langer said.
“I think Melbourne and Sydney are as likely to suit India as the other two venues.”
