IPL Best Tournament To Prepare For T20 World Cup: Justin Langer

Australia head coach Justin Langer recently lauded the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the best possible practice for players ahead of the T20 World Cup scheduled for October later this year.

In the current scheme of things, the IPL has been postponed to April 15, although it’s highly unlikely that the league will be played with India battling from the Coronavirus Pandemic. While the cash-rich league was originally scheduled to be played from March 29, but the BCCI saw fit to postpone it, amid fears of the contagious illness.

Langer in his interview further admitted that the health of the players and people of India’s comes before sport.

No better tournament than IPL to prepare for T20 World Cup: Justin Langer

The 49-year-old coach was appreciative in his words for the IPL but did understand the repercussions why the league had to be delayed.

“Before this crisis started to unravel, we were absolutely determined for our guys to play the IPL,” Langer was quoted as saying by foxsports.co.au. “Because with the T20 World Cup coming up, there’s no better grounding, no better practice, no better tournament for them to get ready for that.”

He added, “But obviously things have changed a lot. The health of not only our individual players but also our country and India as a whole is paramount here.”

Australia is a very settled team: Justin Langer

Apart from being the head coach, the former batsman is also a member of the national selection panel of Cricket Australia (CA). He revealed that his, is a well-settled team, but despite this, there are a couple of spots up for grabs, given there’s still time in the T20 World Cup.

The Aaron-finch led side beat South Africa 2-1 in a T20I series in February. Australia was due to due to play New Zealand, down under, although the series had to be called off due to fears surrounding the coronavirus, yet again.

“In terms of selection, I’m not too stressed about it … one or two positions in our World Cup side are up for grabs. It’s a very, very settled team. We played great cricket against South Africa,” Langer said. 

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