Justin Langer hits back at suggestion that Steve Smith is white-anting Tim Paine
Justin Langer is perplexed by Ian Chappell’s claims Steve Smith undermining Tim Paine’s role as captain, revealing he has instructed all his players to think like skippers on the field.
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Justin Langer has leapt to the defence of Steve Smith, admitting he is bemused by claims the former skipper might be undermining the authority of captain Tim Paine.
The Aussie coach said it would be “ridiculous” and “crazy” if Paine wasn’t taking guidance from experienced leaders like Smith and David Warner, revealing he has instructed all his players to think like skippers on the field.
Australia are set to take on New Zealand in Thursday’s first Test at Perth with an unchanged XI, and had Ashton Agar bowling to the top order in the nets to imitate Kiwi spinner Mitchell Santner.
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The Kiwis might fly under the radar in world cricket, but Langer insists Australia have done their homework and the Black Caps aren’t underrated by them.
Langer also responded to comments from Ian Chappell during the Adelaide Test, where the respected Test captaincy great took exception to Smith moving fieldsmen around.
In a passage of commentary on Macquarie Sports Radio, Chappell said he “hated to see” what Smith was doing and likened it to behaviour from former England teams which he saw as “white-anting the captain.”
Chappell, however, never directly said that Smith was white-anting Paine.
Langer described Chappell’s comments as “strange.”
“I thought that was really strange comment the other day. Ian Chappell, who I obviously have great respect for as a former captain and a long-time commentator, I just felt that was really strange,” said Langer.
“It would be absolutely ridiculous of Tim Paine not to be looking like all captains do, and having a talk to Steve Smith, who has been a former captain of Australia and David Warner and Travis Head who is a captain of South Australia and a vice-captain and a group of senior bowlers.
“He’d be crazy.
“We want to encourage all our guys to think like captains. We want to encourage them to think like captains and leaders on and off the field. So, it’d be ridiculous for Painey not to be asking for it and then channelling the information as is required to whoever needs it.
“I was actually pleased to see our guys having a leadership impact on the ground.”
There has been a couple of occasions during the Ashes and Pakistan series of Smith appearing to marshall fielders when Paine hasn’t been looking.
Paine however, has dismissed it as “fake news” and has said on several occasions how much he values Smith and Warner’s input and leans on them for help.
However, Smith himself told News Corp Australia before the start of the Test summer that he was wary about the prospect of giving too much advice on the field and implored Paine to tell him to “shut up” if he was ever over-stepping the mark.
Smith has said any input he has on the field is only designed to help.
Meanwhile, Langer declined to be drawn on a debate playing out intermittently in the background about whether Warner’s lifetime ban from captaincy is unfair.
Unlike Smith who is eligible to lead again by April, Warner was banned from ever being a skipper at any level of the game.
Based on continued rumblings that more than three men knew more about the events in and around Cape Town than was originally let on, some powerful figures around the game have questioned whether the extra punishment dished out to Warner was disproportionate.
Langer – who has praised Warner for his attitude since returning to the fold – was unsure how to respond and wanted more time to develop a considered opinion.
“The ban is there and honestly I haven’t really thought about that. I haven’t looked at it that closely. Come back to me on that one. We’ll talk about that at a later date,” said Langer.
“The ban is there for a reason. He’s obviously playing excellent cricket at the moment. Long may it continue. He’s having a really big impact within the team.”