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The former Australian cricketer, Justin Langer, has ruled himself out of the reckoning in regards to the head coach role of Team India after a conversation with KL Rahul. The 53-year-old, who coaches Lucknow Super Giants currently, took the “good advice” of the team’s captain about the thousand times high pressure and politics of coaching a cricket team like India compared to an IPL franchise.
Notably, in his first coaching stint in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Justin Langer had the opportunity to build on the last two playoff appearances for Lucknow Super Giants, but he was unable to do so. In the 14 matches of the league season, LSG won seven and lost seven, but their poor NRR of (-0.667) meant that they finished in seventh place on the points table.
During his recent appearance on the BBC’s Stumped podcast, Justin Langer spoke about India’s head coach role in detail. He said, as per ESPNcricinfo, “It would be an amazing job, (but) I have (put myself out of contention). I also know that it's an all-encompassing role, and having done it for four years with the Australian team, honestly, it's exhausting. And that's the Australian job!”
When Justin Langer was asked about whether he would never want to take the opportunity to coach Team India, he remarked, “You never say never. And the pressure of doing it in India… I was talking to KL Rahul and he said, 'You know, if you think there's pressure and politics in an IPL team, multiply that by a thousand, (that's) coaching India. That was a good bit of advice, I guess. It would be an awesome job, but not for me at the moment."
Moreover, the 2024 season of the IPL wasn’t a success for Justin Langer, he has a great pedigree as far as coaching the Australian cricket team. During his four-year tenure with the Aussies, he led them to T20 World Cup 2021 and ICC World Test Championship 2023 wins, apart from retaining the Ashes against the old enemy England on multiple occasions.
