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Justin Langer

Justin Langer Portrait
Justin Langer Portrait Image: Wikimedia Commons. One Salient Oversight at English Wikipedia / Public domain

Justin Lee Langer (born 21 November 1970) is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. A left-handed batsman, he represented Australia in Test cricket for over a decade and is best remembered for his long-running opening partnership with Matthew Hayden during the early and mid-2000s, regarded as among the most successful in Test history. Langer later coached the Australian men's national team between 2018 and 2022, leading them to victory at the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

Key Facts

Full name Justin Lee Langer
Born 21 November 1970, Perth, Western Australia
Batting Left-handed
Role Opening batsman; later coach
Domestic team Western Australia
County cricket Middlesex; Somerset
Test debut 1992–93, against West Indies
ODIs 8 matches (1994–1997)
National team coach May 2018 – February 2022
Major coaching honour 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup winner
Current role Head coach, Lucknow Super Giants (from July 2023)

Early life and background

Born in Perth, Western Australia, Langer showed cricketing ability from a young age, representing Western Australia at under-age levels and playing for the Australia under-19 team. In 1990, he won a scholarship to the Australian Cricket Academy at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Playing career

Domestic and county cricket

Langer made his first-class debut for Western Australia during the 1991–92 Sheffield Shield season. He served as captain of Western Australia from the 2002–03 season. In English county cricket he played for Middlesex and later Somerset, where he also captained the side. He holds the record for the most first-class runs scored by an Australian cricketer.

Test career

Langer made his Test debut at the age of 22 during the West Indies' 1992–93 tour of Australia. He retained his place in the squad but struggled for consistent form, making only sporadic appearances until Australia's 1998–99 tour of Pakistan, where he scored his maiden Test century. He subsequently established himself at number three in the batting order, a position he held until the 2001 Ashes series.

Having been injured for the first four Tests of the 2001 Ashes, Langer replaced Michael Slater as Matthew Hayden's opening partner for the final Test and scored a century in an Australian innings victory. This was the first of three centuries in consecutive matches, securing his place as Test opener. With Ricky Ponting moving to number three, the Hayden–Langer opening partnership endured, barring injuries, until Langer's retirement at the close of the 2006–07 Ashes series. The pair aggregated 5,655 runs across 113 innings, a tally second only to the West Indian partnership of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes.

Langer's retirement followed a series of injuries that had begun to restrict his batting, including a concussion suffered during Australia's 2005–06 tour of South Africa.

Limited-overs career

Despite being among the leading run-scorers in Australia's domestic limited-overs competition, Langer played only eight One Day Internationals for Australia, all between 1994 and 1997.

Final seasons

After Test retirement, Langer played one further season for Western Australia and continued as captain of Somerset. He retired from all forms of cricket at the end of the 2009 English season.

Coaching career

Assistant and state roles

Langer served as the Australian national team's batting coach and senior assistant coach from November 2009 to November 2012, after which he was appointed senior coach of the Perth Scorchers and Western Australia. In 2016, he was interim coach of Australia while then-head coach Darren Lehmann was on assignment scouting for the Ashes and away tours.

Australia head coach

On 3 May 2018, Langer was announced as head coach of the Australian national cricket team in the aftermath of a ball-tampering scandal that had led to Lehmann's resignation. His four-year term began on 22 May 2018. Under his leadership, Australia won the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. On 4 February 2022, Langer announced his resignation as head coach, declining a short-term extension to a contract that was set to expire in June 2022.

Lucknow Super Giants

In July 2023, Langer was appointed head coach of the Lucknow-based Indian Premier League franchise Lucknow Super Giants.

Recognition

In a fan poll conducted by Cricket Australia in 2017, Langer was named in the country's best Ashes XI of the previous 40 years.

Significance

Langer's career bridged two important phases in Australian cricket: as a player, he was a central figure in the dominant Test side of the 2000s, with the Hayden–Langer opening combination forming the platform for many of Australia's victories of that era. As a coach, he is credited with steadying the national side after the 2018 ball-tampering controversy and guiding it to a maiden men's T20 World Cup title.

References