Ashes: Justin Langer takes brutal dig at England's Jack Leach after 1st Test horror

After England spinner Jack Leach failed to show his best in the first Test of the ongoing Ashes series, Australia's head coach Justin Langer had a dig at him. While discussing his team's plan against Leach, Langer stated that Australia have a "massive competitive advantage" over England's spinners, who are still quite young and inexperienced in his opinion.

Langer went on to remark that his team has a "world-class" spinner in Nathan Lyon and that they want to take advantage of it given how important spinners are in Australia.

"Jack Leach and Dom Bess, they’re still quite young spinners. We want to put them under pressure. And then get England thinking about what their selection strategy is going to be. We know how important a spinner is in Australia," Langer was quoted as saying by The Mirror. 

England's selection strategy received a lot of criticism after the side decided to go with Jack Leach in place of veteran pacer Stuart Broad. England also left out one of the world's best in James Anderson, which former Australian captain Allan Border believes is a big mistake. Border lavished praise on Australians, saying that they really put the pressure back on England by playing aggressive cricket against Leach. 

Ashes 2021-22, 1st Test

In the first Ashes Test, Australia began its first innings on Day 2, where David Warner alongside Marnus Labuschagne forged a 150-run partnership after losing his opening partner early. While Labuschagne scored 74 off 117 balls, Warner smashed 94 runs before he was dismissed by Ollie Robinson. Travis Head went on to score 152 runs off 148 balls before being dismissed by Mark Wood. Australia scored a mammoth 425 runs. 

Earlier, England were bowled out for just 147 runs in their first innings. Jos Buttler top-scored for the visiting side with 39 off 58 balls. Haseeb Hameed, Ollie Pope, and Chris Woakes were the other contributors for England as they scored 25, 35, and 21 runs respectively.

Pat Cummins, who was bowling in his debut Test as Australia captain, picked a fifer to kickstart his journey as the new leader of the Australian Test side. England are currently batting in their second innings and have scored 65 runs for the loss of two wickets. 

Image: AP