ICC World Cup 2019 | Peter Handscomb will definitely play, he deserves it, says Justin Langer
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Justin Langer is 100% confident that Peter Handscomb will make his World Cup debut against England in the semi-final at Edgbaston on Thursday. After missing out narrowly on the initial squad, Handscomb was called in to replace the injured Shaun Marsh who was ruled out with a fractured forearm.
Handscomb has had a strange year. He was recalled to the Test side, after just being dropped, and was dropped later anyway. He was called up to the ODI side, scored a lot of runs, but didn’t make the World Cup squad, with Steve Smith and David Warner returning to the fore. Now, the Victorian middle-order batsman is all set to make his World Cup debut, guess what, in the semi-final against their arch-rivals, and tournament favourites England on the latter's home soil. Australian head coach Langer confirmed the news at the pre-match press conference ahead of the game.Â
"I'll tell you the truth. Peter Handscomb will definitely play, 100 percent. He deserves it. He was stiff not to be on this tour, he was so unlucky not to be in the initial squad after what he'd done to get us to that point. He's in good form, he played well for Australia A, gives us that nice balance in the middle order. He's got good temperament, he plays spin well, he's on top of his game, so Pete will definitely play," Langer said, reported Cricbuzz.
The question that remains, then, is this: who is Handscomb going to replace in the playing XI? Will it be Marcus Stoinis, who has been carrying a slight niggle in the past few games, or their explosive all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who is under fire for some poor performances? At the press conference, Langer seemed to indicate that Stoinis looked sharp, and ready to go, which may well mean that Maxwell will now make way.Â
"Stoinis looks good. It was a very good nets session actually, there was a bit of heat in there again and it was very competitive and that always brings the best out in Stoinis, so he did a good job today and he's fit to go.Â
"If you go back 12 months ago there wasn't too much to be relaxed and chilled about in Australian cricket, was there? And that's the truth. We went through a major crisis in our cricket. It didn't just affect our cricket, it affected our country. We've had to work hard on being more humble in what we do and being focused on playing good cricket but also being good people as well. You get more relaxed as you start playing better as an individual or as a team. Maybe we are a bit more relaxed but only on the back of playing good cricket and having had to work hard on that," Langer added.
