{"id":806328,"date":"2026-07-17T15:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/806328\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T15:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:16:10","slug":"langer-leads-shortlist-to-become-next-england-test-coach-after-flower-rules-himself-out-england-cricket-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/806328\/","title":{"rendered":"Langer leads shortlist to become next England Test coach after Flower rules himself out | England cricket team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Langer is believed to have moved to the top of the England and Wales Cricket Board\u2019s shortlist of potential coaches of the men\u2019s Test team, after Andy Flower<\/a> ruled himself out of the running for the position on Friday.<\/p>\n

Less than a week after Brendon McCullum was sacked<\/a> as red-ball coach Rob Key, the managing director of men\u2019s cricket who is leading the ECB\u2019s recruitment process, has made significant progress in his search for a replacement.<\/p>\n

Langer, the former Australia opener and coach, is in many ways an unlikely candidate for the England job: when it was last available in 2022, soon after he was forced out of the same role with Australia<\/a>, he dismissed the idea out of hand: \u201cI\u2019ve never spoken to English cricket,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cThe thought of coaching England \u2026 mate!\u201d<\/p>\n

Flower took England to the world No 1 ranking and won the Ashes three times while he was head coach between 2009 and 2014. With the team currently ranked fifth in Tests, and having won the Ashes once since 2013, none of the last five series and with an away record against their greatest rivals of one win and 17 defeats in 20 games since Flower led them to victory in Australia in 2010-11, the ECB<\/a> can only dream of such achievements in the blue-riband format.<\/p>\n

But Flower is now coaching London Spirit in the Hundred \u2013 having replaced Langer in that role \u2013 as well as Royal Challengers Bengaluru, with whom he won the Indian Premier League in May, and does not consider it feasible to combine them with an international coaching job. He had a number of conversations with figures at the ECB this week, including with Key, but has informed them that he is not interested in the job at present.<\/p>\n

Andy Flower does not want to combine his IPL and Hundred roles with international coaching. Photograph: Mike Egerton\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line for me is that I\u2019m very happy in the work that I am doing at the moment,\u201d Flower said. \u201cI work for a couple of really good organisations. I\u2019ve got really good teams around me, and I\u2019m really comfortable with what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019ve worked with England before, I had an amazing time when I had the privilege to represent England as one of their leaders, and I remember those years really fondly. It would be a privilege for me or anyone else to be the Test coach. But for me at this time, I\u2019m really comfortable with what I\u2019m doing and I\u2019m going to stick with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Fleming, another potential candidate after leaving his role with Chennai Super Kings this week, says he has not had contact with England but told the New Zealand Herald: \u201cI\u2019d 100% give it some consideration, just out of respect. If another country thought you could add some value, it\u2019s quite a compliment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Langer, meanwhile, has been coach of the IPL side Lucknow Super Giants since taking over from Flower in 2023 and is also in charge of Manchester Super Giants in the Hundred. If approached he would face a similar quandary \u2013 between rejecting the England job, leaving Lucknow and Manchester or attempting to combine the roles \u2013 to the one the Zimbabwean settled in favour of his franchise.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI can\u2019t speak for other people and it wouldn\u2019t be right for me to speak for the ECB, obviously, they\u2019ll have to make their own judgments,\u201d Flower said. \u201cFor me personally, I don\u2019t think I could have done both. Especially with the IPL being held during the first couple of months of the English summer. If I was England\u2019s Test coach I\u2019d like to be here, watching and interacting with the people I need to watch and interact with. So for me, that wasn\u2019t a possibility. Obviously there will be lots of debate over who might do the head coach role, but I won\u2019t be part of that debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former England batter Jonny Bairstow, who made his international debut under Flower in 2011, is now working with him again at London Spirit. \u201cHe\u2019s someone I\u2019ve got the utmost respect for, from when he played the game but also from when he coached with England,\u201d Bairstow said. \u201cIf he\u2019s ruled himself out that\u2019s a big loss for English cricket. He\u2019s someone that would have done a fine job, I\u2019m sure, if it was for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Langer is believed to have moved to the top of the England and Wales Cricket Board\u2019s shortlist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-806328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}