The dramas of the past were well and truly put to bed on Wednesday as Justin Langer embarked on a hug-fest with his former charges ahead of the first Test against West Indies.
The ghosts of Langer’s messy departure as Australia coach resurfaced last week following the airing of a podcast in which he expressed his frustration at how things panned out.
Langer used the word “coward” to describe the people who aired their grievances to the media as an anonymous source instead of telling them to his face.
The 52-year-old later explained that he wasn’t referring to players when he made that comment.
Despite that clarification, questions still burned as to whether there was a rift between Langer and the player group.
That was swiftly dispelled in Perth as Langer was mobbed by his former players while out on the ground conducting his Seven Network pre-match duties at Optus Stadium.
Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Green were among the throng of players who hugged Langer.
Some players even went out of their way to come across and embrace their former coach.
Langer spoke glowingly about his former team when asked about the recent headlines.
“Perception and reality. Perception often sells newspapers, the reality is, these are like my little brothers,” Langer said on the broadcast.
“I love Australian cricket and I love being back and seeing the boys. I haven’t seen them for nine months.”
There was little fanfare to greet the first Test of the Australian summer, with less than 15,000 expected to attend day one.
The match marked the first Test in Perth since Australia beat New Zealand by 296 runs in 2019.
Justin Langer speaks with Steve Smith. (Photo by Quinn Rooney – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Adam Zampa is set to return to first-class cricket after a three-year absence in a bid to make the Australian Test squad for February’s tour of India.
The 30-year-old leg-spinner has been chosen in a 13-man squad for Thursday’s Sheffield Shield clash with Victoria at the Junction Oval.
Greg Shipperd has stepped into the coach’s role after Phil Jaques was punted by Cricket NSW earlier this week following the team’s winless start to the season.
“It’s rare that Adam is available for Sheffield Shield, given his taxing white ball schedule but he has this week free and has always maintained his desire to play red-ball cricket,” NSW head of elite male cricket Michael Klinger said.
“For us to be able to bring in a player of his calibre and experience is a welcome one.”
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Zampa will be jostling with Chris Green for a spot if NSW go into the game with just one frontline spinner. Green, who took nine wickets in his first-class debut last week, could be picked as an all-rounder although Sean Abbott has also returned to the Blues after missing the loss to Western Australia as he was in the Australian ODI squad.
Adam Zampa reacts during Australia’s T20 World Cup match against New Zealand. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
The Australian selectors are likely to take at least two other spinners in the squad to India alongside veteran Nathan Lyon.
Zampa is a permanent fixture in Australia’s white-ball squads but has not played a first-class match since he represented South Australia against WA in Perth almost three years to the day.
“My dream is still to play Test cricket,” Zampa told Fox Cricket last week. “I feel like my game’s evolved over the last few years, it’s just about the workload and seeing how my body will cope.
“I’d love to throw my hat in the ring (for the India tour). I last played for NSW in 2013, almost 10 years (ago) … it would be good to pull on the Baggy Blue again.”
Queensland leggie Mitchell Swespon, who was in the Test team for this year’s tours to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, is the frontrunner to be Lyon’s spin partner in India while Victorian young gun Todd Murphy and West Australian left-armer Ashton Agar are also in the mix.
NSW: Sean Abbott, Mickey Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Liam Hatcher, Moises Henriques, Baxter Holt, Daniel Hughes, Hayden Kerr, Kurtis Patterson (c), Jason Sangha (v-c), Chris Tremain, Adam Zampa.
Victoria: Peter Handscomb (c), Ashley Chandrasinghe, Travis Dean, Sam Elliott, Sam Harper, Jon Holland, Campbell Kellaway, Nic Maddinson, Todd Murphy, Fergus O’Neill, Jack Prestwidge, Matt Short, Will Sutherland.
West Indies have suffered a blow on the eve of their two-match series against Australia with all-rounder Raymon Riefer ruled out due to a groin injury
In better news, seamer Jayden Seales has shrugged off a knee complaint and is set to play.
The son of West Indies legend Shivnarine Chanderpaul will make his Test debut on Wednesday in Perth after months of build up around Tagenarine’s selection.
The visitors confirmed his selection while also announcing middle-order Jermaine Blackwood had overcome a blow to the head in training on Monday.
They will wear black armbands at the Test as a tribute to tribute to former wicketkeeper David Murray, who died last week, aged 72. He played 19 Tests and 10 ODIs. He held a record nine catches in the 1981 Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
The wild west is back with Optus Stadium ground staff promising a pitch with plenty of pace and bounce for the Frank Worrell Trophy opener in Perth.
Australia’s Test summer will begin in the midst of 35-degree heat in Western Australia on Wednesday, making for a tough first day for whomever bowls first.
But there will at least be some early assistance.
Curator Isaac McDonald said on Tuesday he expected pace and bounce from the opening day, in line with what was experienced in the Twenty20 World Cup.
That could make for a throwback to the famous bouncy wickets of decades gone by at the WACA, where the same Waroona River soil is used.
“Recent pitches in the past have had the quick, fast, bouncy, characteristics. So we are trying to emulate in the long form,” McDonald said.
“We’re lucky in our clay is the highest clay content in the country.
“We are able to push the clay further in limits and squeeze more life out of it. It just sets like concrete if you get it right.
“The warmer weather aids with our cricket soil, getting that extra hardness on day one rather than waiting for day two.”
McDonald though is confident the pitch won’t crack up like it did four years ago against India, making it a nightmare to bat on.
That pitch and its sideway cracks brought back memories of the 1996-97 Test between Australia and West Indies, where Greg Blewett was bowled by a ball that stayed ankle high and Curtly Ambrose was run out when his bat became stuck in a crack.
Players fear similar conditions this year.
But McDonald is hopeful the 12mm of grass left on in the 37-degree heat the day before the match would counteract that, adding to a more mature pitch than four years ago.
“That heat was unprecedented and it was for a long period of time,” McDonald said of 2018-19.
“The nature of that pitch still being quite new, the grass sods weren’t fully developed at that stage and it’s not quite as strong as it could be.
“The testing we have done so far tells us we have good moisture below (this year) … I don’t think there will be too many big cracks open up.”
England have named their team for the first match of their three-Test series against Pakistan, with Lancashire all-rounder Liam Livingstone set to make his debut in the format.
Livingstone, along with fellow first Test starters Ben Stokes and Harry Brook, starred for England in their recent triumphant Twenty20 World Cup campaign in Australia.
Nottinghamshire batter Ben Duckett returns for England for the first time since 2016 and will open alongside Kent’s Zak Crawley.
The Test, which begins in Rawalpindi on Thursday, will be England’s first in Pakistan since 2005.
International teams have largely avoided the country since an attack by Islamist militants on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in 2009 killed six policemen and two civilians.
England XI v Pakistan: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Ben Foakes Liam Livingstone, Jack Leach, Ollie Robinson, Jimmy Anderson.
James Anderson insists England are “chomping at the bit” to get their first Test in Pakistan for 17 years under way.
The 40-year-old is the only member of the England squad to have toured the country before, back in 2005, but he only featured in red-ball tour matches and one-day internationals, not the Test series.
It is the only cricket-playing nation where Anderson has yet to play Test matches during his two decades in professional cricket, and the seam bowler is ready to embrace the new challenge.
“(We are) really excited,” Anderson said.
“Especially after the summer we had in Test cricket, we felt like we were building something and we want to keep that kind of momentum building and to be a part of that in the summer was amazing.
“Then, to be a part of what is a really exciting challenge for us out here…Different conditions, different to what we will have experienced before as a group.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
“It’s a really exciting challenge and I think all of us are just chomping at the bit.”
In March, Australia became the first of the big three cricketing nations – India, England and Australia – to embark on a Test tour of Pakistan again and the first two Tests ended in high-scoring draws before the visitors clinched a series victory in the final game.
However, Anderson believes England have what it takes to claim 20 wickets in each match, a feat Australia managed in only the final Test match of their series.
In Rawalpindi, only 14 wickets fell across the five-day Test, and it could prove a tough challenge for the England bowling attack.
Anderson continued: “We’re trying to make sure we (the bowlers) have all bases covered for every eventuality and make sure we know what fields we might set, talking specifics about their batters as well and trying to work out plans for them.
“But I think, at this level, it’s happened for a few years in the Test team in particular where we, I wouldn’t say we’re self-sufficient, but we do look after each other, and we’ve got great analysts.
“We’ve got great coaches all around us and some of the best captains the world has ever seen in our group, so we can pick their brains as well and we feel like we’ve got what it takes to take 20 wickets in each Test match.”
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