File photo of Justin Langer.
Australian head coach Justin Langer took sharp dig at two former England players for questioning Steve Smith's integrity after the Oz batting star was recorded scuffing off the batting guard of Rishabh Pant during the recently drawn third Test in Sydney.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan came down heavily on Smith for the incident saying that the former Oz skipper has let his team down again after the ball tampering scandal in South Africa back in 2018.
However, coach Langer wasn't pleases with the criticism made by Vaughan as he found them out of line.
"I spoke to Michael Vaughan as well, I thought he was out of line actually. You get it from (some of the critics), but I don’t expect it from (someone like Vaughan). I know he makes a living out of making those sorts of comments, but I thought he was out of line," Langer said on SEN radio station on Wednesday morning.
He further added that the allegation made on him about scuffing off Pant's guard is ludicrous.
"Everything [said] about Steve Smith is absolutely ludicrous, we have a laugh that he's a bit quirky and a bit different, he shadow bats in the shower, all he thinks about is batting. He certainly consciously wasn't trying to do anything wrong.
"He was just standing there thinking about batting.
"He is 100 per cent innocent in this. He didn't do anything on the pitch. If you know anything about cricket the wicket was like concrete, he would’ve needed 15-inch spikes to make an indent, to do what people were accusing him of doing and trying to mess up Pant’s guard.
"Give me a break. I've never heard so much rubbish in my life."
