Australia vs West Indies: Dan Christian Set To Return To Australia's XI After 4 Years, Confirms Coach Justin Langer

Australia head coach Justin Langer has confirmed a couple of names in the eleven which will take the field on Saturday against the West Indies for the first of the 5-match T20I series in St Lucia. The first one of those is Dan Christian, who has been given a recall to the national T20 setup after four years and is set to slot in the eleven straightaway.

The right-handed all-rounder has been a journeyman since being dropped from the Australian side in 2017; he had played around the world in the shorter version of the game and has the reputation of winning titles – the same reason for which the Royal Challengers Bangalore bought him for IPL 2021.

The other player which Justin Langer confirmed in the eleven is another all-rounder Mitchell Marsh – the coach revealed the Marsh will be slotted in at three, in place of the injured Steve Smith this series. Both Christian and Marsh were impressive in Australia’s intra-squad practice matches.

“He’s finally worn me down, ‘Christo’. I’ve been in the (head coach) job three years and every time he gets some runs in any game or competition around the world, he texts me and says ‘Coach I’m ready to go, pick me, I’m the best allrounder in Australia’,” Justin Langer told reporters.

“He’s a fantastic bloke, he’s got an amazing set of hands in the field (and) he’s clever with the ball. His experience, and we’ve seen throughout the Big Bash and all around the world actually, he hits the ball as clean as anyone.

“Mitch Marsh is going to bat three. We see him as a bit of an enforcer up there, he faces fast bowling as well as anyone around the place. He hits the ball with brutal power and we’re looking forward to giving him a chance at the top of the order,” he added.

We might look at this 7-4 model: Justin Langer

Another tactic revealed by Justin Langer was that they will be going in with four specialist bowlers – Mitchell Starc and Adam Zampa are the two certain spots – and a couple of all-rounders will form the fifth and sixth bowlers. In the absence of Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, and Daniel Sams, Christian and Marsh will be looking to grab the opportunity.

“The six batsmen and five specialist bowlers – it’s certainly a model I’ve gone with throughout my whole head coaching career, there’s no surprise to anyone with that. And it’s been a very successful model. But if you look ahead, we might look at this 7-4 model, where you have a couple of all-rounders. Different teams do it differently around the world.

“Looking ahead also to the World Cup, if we look at where it’s being played – the UAE – there’s going to be enormous amount of traffic on those wickets, with the IPL, the PSL that has already been – we’re going to play on some pretty worn wickets, especially towards the back end of the World Cup,” the head coach further stated.

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