Australia’s cup surge puts twist on coach’s contract talks

Justin Langer is just two wins away from cracking Australia’s 14-year T20 World Cup curse and guaranteeing his bosses a major headache in sorting out his future.

Australia’s head coach Justin Langer.

Justin Langer is just two wins away from cracking Australia’s 14-year T20 World Cup curse and guaranteeing his bosses a major headache in sorting out his future.

Australian coach Langer’s four-year contract ends after this summer’s Ashes and a player revolt had seen him rated next to no chance of getting an extension.

However, if Langer delivered Australia’s first T20 World Cup at its seventh attempt and had an emphatic Ashes series victory, the narrative around his future becomes more complex, especially given the coach has made a concerted effort to change his ways.

“The last six months have been quite a humbling experience,’’ Langer said on Sunday.

When asked if he had changed his coaching philosophies, Langer said “to a degree’’ and he had previously admitted delegating more to his assistant coaches to the point where he did not attend a recent training session.

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“We keep evolving. I keep evolving. Hopefully I have showed over a long period of time that is a trademark of what I have done in the game. It is one thing to talk about it, putting it into practice is another thing,” he said.

“We have a really great environment here at the moment, a great feeling within the group. We are playing good cricket. Something must be going right.’’

Australia, who Langer believes can be the best team in the world, has gained a pass mark for this tournament by securing a semi-final entry, probably against Pakistan, on Friday morning (AEDT).

Australia progressed to the ­finals after David Warner (89 not out), Mitchell Marsh (53) and Josh Hazlewood (4-39) helped to trounce the West Indies in their final pool match on Saturday.

Winning the Ashes may be the more important achievement but clinching the World Cup is seen as more difficult, especially as Australia was the No.7-ranked T20 nation and that brand of the game is so fickle.

Langer is set to confront his great mate and long-time opening partner Matthew Hayden, who is Pakistan’s batting coach, and the very thought of it brought a smile to his face.

“He is enjoying it I think – we have been back and forth messaging throughout the tournament. No insights though. We are keeping business to business.

“I have not seen him for a long time. There are lot of relationships in cricket. We will put our friendships down and we will get to business. It should be good fun.

“Our last few games have been outstanding. The boys have really stepped up. It was quite a sobering experience (when Australia lost) against England and the way the boys have stepped up has been brilliant.

“Some of our cricket shows we can be the best team in the world. England are leading the way at the moment and we have some exciting prospects. We have taken some lessons from the tournament in how we can continue to play T20 cricket.

“The thing I have noticed about Pakistan is that their senior players look very fit and are moving very well and there seems to be a calmness about the way they are going about their business.

“We are going to have to be on top of our game on Thursday night to beat them.’’