Justin Langer reveals Australia plan as England reap rewards of unleashing Jofra Archer

Archer struck Smith on the neck on Saturday, forcing the former Australia skipper to retire hurt.

He came out to bat again but the following day was judged to have concussion and has since been ruled out of the third Test starting at Headingley this Thursday.

Australia still lead The Ashes 1-0 despite England’s positive end to the draw at Lord’s.

And coach Justin Langer says their bowling plans will remain the same despite the impact Archer’s pace has clearly made on the series.

“We know what our plans are to beat England,” Langer said.

“What we’re not going to do is get caught up an an emotional battle of who’s going to bowl the quickest bouncers.

“We’re here to win the Test match, not to see how many helmets we can hit.

“And that’s the truth, we are literally here to win the Test match and we have our plans on how we think we can beat England.

“We’re here to win the Test match, not to see how many bruises we can give, that’s not winning Test matches, trust me, you can’t get out with a bruise on your arm.

“I’m sure the bouncer will still be part of every bowler’s armoury, if it helps us get batsmen out then we’ll use it, otherwise we’ll keep sticking to the plan.”

Archer was deemed not fit to play the first Test at Edgbaston, which Australia won by 251 runs.

However, the Sussex seamer replaced the injured James Anderson at Lord’s and picked up five wickets on an impressive debut.

Langer says his batsmen are used to playing against the short ball having been brought up on conducive pitches for fast bowlers in Australia.

However, he says facing someone like Archer is not something they expected before the series began.

“Our guys play a lot of short ball cricket in Australia,” Langer added.

“We tend to play on bouncy wickets so they’re used to playing off the back foot, and I’m sure they’ll prepare accordingly.

“We were expecting James Anderson to swing the ball, seam the ball and we’re going to have to be really tight in our defence.

“Jofra certainly brings a different dimension to the game and we saw he bowled quick, but also his economy rate was incredible.

“You know you’re awake, you know you’re alive when you’re facing fast bowling.

“That’s what Test cricket’s all about, it’s bloody brilliant.”

source: express.co.uk