Let me try to analyse Justin Langer in trouble and Proteas problems.
Justin Langer belongs to an era when Australian cricket had absolutely no peer. They were so dominant in all formats of the game that all they needed to do was to just turn up to every game to win. The multiple World Cup wins, the series wins in every country and the sheer number of extraordinary players in the team is a testimony to that fact. Justin Langer was one among them. Infact his successful pairing with Matthew Hayden at the top of the order was one of the biggest reason for Australia’s dominance.
In other words, Langer is very much used to winning all the time. The current scenario with the Australian team is not similar. They do not have that many great players nor do they win everywhere. As such, Langer is not used to such a situation and he is really frustrated. Elsewhere, South Africa, as expected, lost the first test to Pakistan. They have some soul searching to do.
Trouble for Langer
Ever since the loss to India, the Australian team and Justin Langer have been in the news. The players were criticised for their performance or lack of it. Tim Paine had to bear the worst with his keeping and his captaincy called into question. It has now come to light that the players are not that happy with the head coach Justin Langer.
Sydney Morning Herald’s report
“Dressing-room sources say that over a gruelling summer, Langer’s management style wore thin with some players, who on top of having to live in a bubble for months on end say they have become drained by his intensity and mood swings,” the SMH reported.
“…some senior players are frustrated at the atmosphere in the team being brought down by the coach’s shifting emotions and what they see as too much micro-management. They say that has extended to bowlers being bombarded with statistics and instructions about where to bowl at lunch breaks including during the fourth and final Test against India at the Gabba,” the report further read.
Langer as I have mentioned above can be quite intense. Infact, he is always overbearing probably because of the fact that he was part of an extraordinarily successful team.
His mood swings during and after game was clearly captured by the Amazon Prime documentary, The Test. He was shown as someone who is always grumpy. Someone who is his own man and does not really listen to the players. He was shown as someone who is hungry and temperamental. Someone who does not have that much patience, either for positive results or for development of a player.
Langer must mellow down
Having said that, Langer must realise that the talent available at his disposal is just not the same as during his playing career. It has been more than 10 years since the Australian system more or less stopped producing great players. There is Steven Smith and Cummins but nothing much apart. Langer needs loads of patience. He must be able to guide the rest who are not as talented as Warne or McGrath or Ponting. Langer must try to make better players out of the current lot and not try to diminish them. The sooner he does that the better it will be for Australia or otherwise, with the bio-secure bubble probably not relaxed any time sooner, Australia run the risk of losing the 2021 Ashes to their arch-rival England. If that happens, it will be because of Langer’s overbearing attitude and nothing else.
Proteas trouble and the ineffectiveness of de Kock
As expected, South Africa lost their first test to Pakistan. What was unexpected was the fight shown on the 4th day when Van Der Dussen and Markaram batted beautifully to take South African past Pakistan’s lead. However, the remaining batsmen weren’t able to capitalise. The trouble for South Africa starts right at the top. Quinton de Kock. Quinton is a gifted batsman and a good keeper but the South African board erred in making him the captain in all the formats. With his batting, he is one of the main batsman for South Africa. He is expected to score runs and lot of runs. There is nothing wrong in expecting a keeper to score runs. Especially in the post Gilchrist era. However, to expect the keeper to score substantial amount of runs signifies that something somewhere is wrong.
He clearly states that the specialist batsmen are of no good and it falls of de Kock to score runs as well as captain the side efficiently. Wicket keeping is a tough job. It requires lot of energy. The constant side down and stand up takes a toll on any keeper. Dhoni did this triple job of wicket keeping, captain and batsman for a longtime. However, he never was the main batsman of his team nor was he expected to score heavily.
Unfortunate situation de Kock finds himself in
Unfortunately, South Africa are not in that position in that de Kock because of his experience and talent is required to score runs as well as keep wickets. In such a scenario, it would have been better to the board to handover the captaincy to Dean Elgar or someone else. Next is to demote de Kock to his favourite position of number 7 where he is destructive. South Africa with inexperienced and lack of talented batsmen, needs de Kock to score they will do well not to burden him with additional responsibility.
I will go onto say that this must be immediate. Even for the 2nd test, captaincy must be given to Deal Elgar allowing de Kock to worry about his game. One will never know. This just might unleash the complete batsman in de Kock. This will also give the other batsmen much needed confidence and the team will be able to compete with Pakistan. I certainly do not think that de Kock is captaincy material and he must be replaced with Elgar for the short term. With Australia travelling to South Africa, this has become a necessity.
Other articles related to South Africa and Australia can be read here, here, here and here.