Ashes 2019: Justin Langer admits desolation in change rooms but players will regroup for task ahead

It will take a day or two but the Australians will find a way to climb off the canvas from their Headingley nightmare, and then there are some serious questions that must be addressed.

A mood of desolation engulfed the Australian change rooms after falling one wicket short of retaining the Ashes and coach Justin Langer said there might not be much talking for a few days.

But the consolation of two more clashes against England for the Aussies to create their own history should be more than enough motivation for them to find their best in time for the fourth Test at Manchester.

Justin Langer, coach of Australia, and Australian chairman of selectors, Trevor Hohns, (left) speak with Steve Smith. Picture: Getty Images

Langer said they needed to be better too, citing poor batting as a continuing issue that won’t simply be solved by the return of Steve Smith.

Australia was rolled for 179 in tough conditions on day one at Headingley but then for 249 in the second innings when conditions were more in their favour, a total which in the end came up short.

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The coach said this week’s tour game at Derby would take on extra importance for plenty of batsmen and bowlers wanting to make their own Ashes impact.

“There’s actually going to be some big questions,” Langer said. “One thing I do know is we’re not batting well enough at the moment.

“I said at the start of the series that the team that bats best will win the Ashes. We're certainly not at our best with our batting at the moment. We’ve got some real questions to ask for the practice game then the fourth Test match.

“We’ve also got to work out after a long summer, we’re going to have to rest some players. Just to give them a mental freshen-up more than anything. The other thing, we’ve got two back-to-back Test matches to win or lose the Ashes. So the questions will be asked — ‘who do we give a break to? Who do we play?’ All those sort of things we’ll have to ask.”

Justin Langer has identified Australia’s batting as a real issue this tour.

Usman Khawaja is under pressure to keep his spot but could also open if selectors opted to drop Marcus Harris after one Test.

But those questions will come after a day of silent soul-searching following the Leeds near-miss, which was as much down to Australia’s own issues as the once-in-a-lifetime innings from Ben Stokes.

“You’ll never see a better innings than that,” Langer said.

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“We’re all feeling it. My gosh, you have no idea how much that hurts, losing today, no idea. We’re feeling it but leaders, whether you're the captain, coach or senior player, you have to get up. You got to.

“We’ll be disappointed for a day or night. We probably won’t talk much for a day or a night or so. Then when we get back into it. We’ll review it like we do every game. We’ll review it together and make sure we get it better next time.

“We fought so hard. We bowled them out for 67. It was brilliant. We’ll win a lot more games than we lose if we bat well — and with the bowling depth we got.”