Goal is to be battle-hardened for India series in 2022: Justin Langer
Beating India in India in 2022 is the ultimate goal for Australia, according to coach Justin Langer. Australia had recently announced their squad for the home Test series against Pakistan and Langer said that the management is currently shaping a squad in the hopes that it would be mature enough to win in India come 2022.
Since losing to England in 2013, not only have India have never lost a Test series at home, they have won all the series that have been played in the country since. Their most recent win against South Africa was a record-breaking 11th win on the trot and that number could increase to 12 if they win the ongoing series against Bangladesh.
"It's always been the case that it's been hard to win in India," Langer told ESPNCricinfo. "But that's the expectation and we've got a couple of years now to find that maturity I'm talking about, to be nice and battle hardened and as ready as possible for that series."
Australia have never had a great record in India, having won only four series in the history of Test matches played between the two sides. Three of these wins came before 1971 and the last time they won a series in India was in 2004/05. Langer was part of that squad and he said that India's current run of wins only reminds him of "how hard it is."
Langer had spoken about beating India in India as "the ultimate" when he was appointed as Australia coach in May 2018. Australia are still in the process of rebuilding themselves after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal and had recently managed to retain the Ashes for the first time in over a decade.
"I think it was an indication of the maturity of our team," Langer said. "I don't mean maturity in age but coming together as a group, it takes great skill but it takes time, great mental toughness and endurance, to be able to back it up over and over again. On one hand, it is a really good thing we've got lots of growth for this Test team and this group of players, that's the upside. When you're going through it you'd love to see more of that consistency, but I look at it from a bigger picture point of view, it means we've got areas we can keep getting better in."
