'Earned Australia's respect back': Langer on his side becoming No. 1 in Tests
May 02, 2020
Melbourne [Australia], May 2 : After becoming the number one side in Test cricket, Australia's head coach Justin Langer has said that his team has won back the respect of the country.
Australia dethroned India from the top spot in Tests and now the Men in Blue are in the third place.
Langer came in as the coach of Australia after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal and it took him some time to get the side back to winning ways. Ever since the return of David Warner and Steve Smith, Australia went on to become a commendable side and the results reflect that.
"We have got lots of work to do to become the team we want to be. But over the last couple of years, not only have we performed well on the field, we have performed well off it. We have earned some respect back from other teams around the world but also from Australia," Langer said in an official statement.
"When we started on this journey, there had been a lot of talk about Australia wanting to be No. 1 in the world in all three forms of the game. We took a different approach. Not once did we talk about being No. 1 ranked in the world. We wanted to be No.1 in our values and process. That is what I am most proud of," he added.
In the latest ICC rankings update, that rates all matches played since May 2019 at 100 per cent and those of the previous two years at 50 per cent, Australia (116) have taken over from India as the top-ranked side in the ICC men's Test team rankings with New Zealand (115) remaining in second place.
India is now third with 114 points. With only two points separating them, this is the second closest the top three teams have been since the Test rankings were launched in 2003.
The closest for the top three teams were in January 2016, when India had led Australia and South Africa by a single point.
Australia has also moved to the top spot in the T20I rankings for the first time in the format.
