Australia Coach Denies Tension After David Warner and Steve Smith Return

Following the drama that unfolded last year with the ball tampering saga, Steve Smith and David Warner are back. Now, Australia coach Justin Langer has said that the two were welcomed with open arms and “no tension”within the team.

The former captain and former vice captain cut short their IPL season for a World Cup training camp. This was after they served year-long bans for their roles in the ball tampering scandal during the South Africa Tour.

“There is no tension,” Langer revealed. “They’re back in the team now. They’ve been selected, which is brilliant.”

So far, Warner and Smith have enjoyed their comeback to the competition, courtesy the IPL. David Warner has been in terrific form for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and even topped the batting leaderboards.

Interestingly, Langer admitted that a few tweaks were needed for the former team leaders. However, he also said that their experience will hand the team some much needed experience.

“When you come from the titled position of captain then there is going to be a certain degree of humility that comes with that,” he said. “One of our really strong values is humility, so there will be great opportunity to develop that.”

The Aussie coach welcomed the selection dilemma that Steve Smith and David Warner added to the top order. The two will be joining Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh and make it “exciting to have those five 100-makers at our disposal”.

Australia are the reigning World Cup champions and have been in recent red-hot form winning eight one-day internationals on the trot, against India and Pakistan.

“We have had great success in the past. While we celebrate that, it means nothing on how we play this (World Cup),” Langer said.

“But I do know that we had a very humbling experience. And we bought it upon ourselves,” he added, reflecting on vision of Smith being “frog-marched out of South Africa”.

“We must make the most of every opportunity that comes up, including this World Cup,”.