Ashes 2022: Pat Cummins address Justin Langer rift rumours as coach fights for job

With Australia on target to end the Ashes in style, Pat Cummins has opened up on his relationship with Justin Langer as Steve Waugh joins chorus of greats going in to bat for the coach.

Steve Waugh has called for an end to the denigration of Australia coach Justin Langer as his team again put England to the sword in Hobart.

Australia are well placed to finish an already dominant Ashes campaign in style after skittling England and surviving a menacing night session only three down in a rapid-moving game which yielded 17 wickets on day two.

Miracle man Scott Boland enhanced his perfect start to his Test career by surviving 25 balls as the night watchman to guide Australia to 3-37 at stumps; a foothold that provides a 152-run platform for Steve Smith (17 not out) to convert into a match-winning total that might set up a 4-0 series win.

But looming large as early as later this week is a showdown between Langer and Cricket Australia bosses over whether or not his contract as coach will be extended.

Captain Fantastic Pat Cummins took four wickets.

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Chief executive Nick Hockley and captain Pat Cummins both declined opportunities to endorse his reappointment over recent weeks and the feeling is a change at the top is looming, but Cummins on Saturday night praised Langer and called for Cricket Australia to make a decision on the coach’s future as swiftly as possible.

“That’s above my pay grade. We’ll wait and see. It’d be nice to have clarity for everyone, but he’s been doing a fantastic job, we absolutely love JL,” said Cummins.

“He’s been really great through the World Cup and the Ashes.

"Honestly, it’s not been a talking point at all within the camp. The plan has always been to chat about it after the Ashes, so the powers that be I’m sure will chat at some stage, but he’s been fantastic for us and the boys love having him around.”

Over the past 24 hours ex-teammates have rallied around Langer.

Waugh, one of the most influential voices in Australian cricket, seldom speaks publicly but took to Instagram to emphatically back Langer.

Broad knocks over Warner ... again.

“Position in doubt? Influenced the culture and character of the team after the Cape Town debacle,” wrote Waugh.

“Coached the team to a winning World Cup 20/20 and now to a commanding Ashes victory.

“Time to put the rumours and innuendo to rest.”

Australia seized a 115-run first innings advantage in Hobart when England was bowled out for 188, before David Warner fell for his second duck of the match and Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja also departed in the shadows of stumps to keep the fifth Test alive on a bowler’s pitch.

Cummins has immediately defined himself as a ‘lead-by example’ captain as he extended Joe Root’s torment and England’s embarrassment with a brilliant four-wicket haul.

Australia was in trouble at 2-5 and 3-33 under lights, but Boland survived 20 minutes to play a crucial role in allowing Smith and the batsmen a chance to consolidate the ascendency in the daylight hours on day three.

Ben Stokes was brilliantly caught by Nathan Lyon for 4.

Time and time again this summer Cummins has shown he is the big man for the big moment and is using his leadership status to further propel his dominance as the world’s No.1 fast bowler.

England pair Root and Dawid Malan were starting to build a platform to get their side into the match, until Cummins prized open the wounds and let his bowling mates Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland plunder the spoils.

Cummins first strangled Malan down the leg side to break the 49-run partnership.

Then the hammer blow came when Cummins trapped Root in front, because nothing can be quite as emphatic in Test cricket as the two captains entering the ring only for one to be left standing.

The crucial moment of the day marks the eighth time Cummins (4-45) has removed Root in Test cricket – the best record any bowler has ever had against the world’s No.1 batsman.

Pat Cummins got Joe Root yet again

Starc (3-53) followed in behind his skipper to have Ben Stokes caught brilliantly by Nathan Lyon in the gully, before magic man Scott Boland marched back into the spotlight to nick off Ollie Pope.

Boland should have had Chris Woakes very next ball to go on a hat-trick, but Warner uncharacteristically shelled a simple chance at first slip.

It shouldn’t have mattered – but Usman Khawaja dropped Woakes again off Boland before the tea break, although he was eventually out to Starc, thanks to a brilliant DRS referral for a catch down the leg-side that appeared for all money as if it’d only nipped Woakes’ jumper.

The latest Ashes horror show recommenced when England’s crestfallen openers were embarrassed by Australia’s tailenders.

Walking wicket Rory Burns added another inglorious chapter to his summer from hell when he was run out for naught, to register his eighth duck in his last 22 innings.

And that was the recalled Burns getting lucky, because he should have been out four balls earlier when Australia mysteriously didn’t appeal for an audible nick off the bowling of the England bunny’s bogeyman Mitchell Starc.

Scott Boland did an excellent job as nightwatch man

Burns’ chastening departure brought England’s average opening partnership for the series down to 12 and exposed just how outclassed the tourists have been given Australia’s 10th wicket partnership this Ashes has averaged 14.

England would have killed for the free-spirited 23 piled on by Australia’s final wicket stand of Nathan Lyon and Boland as the home side added a vital 62 to their total on the morning of day two – a mighty effort given the early crisis point of being 3-12 on a Hobart green top.

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