When Langer was felled by a savage bouncer like Smith, he ‘dreaded’ the thought of another hit

Australia World

Updated August 20, 2019 09:50:03

Steve Smith will be back batting for Australia in the near future, but while the symptoms of concussion will subside relatively quickly, just how long the potential mental demons will last is unclear.

Australian coach Justin Langer was clearly mindful of potential psychological repercussions after the fourth day at Lord’s when Smith was felled by a Jofra Archer bouncer.

“When you get hit it is always in the back of your mind no doubt, any batsman who says it is not is a liar,” he said.

Smith briefly retired hurt to undergo a concussion test before returning to bat after the fall of the next wicket.

But the next day he was suffering the delayed effects of concussion and became the first player to be substituted out in Test cricket.

When asked if Smith would be mentally scarred from the incident, Langer played a straight bat.

“He is the type of person that will do everything between now and until the next time he bats — whether it is mentally, visualising, whether it is practising — to be right,” the coach said.

“He loves batting, we saw that masterclass the other day. Nobody is going to stop him batting.”

If Smith needs to chart a way back from the blow and the subsequent concussion, he need look no further than his coach.

The sickening bouncer that felled Langer

Langer suffered five concussions during his career and said he was “hit on the helmet as much as anyone”.

On debut at Adelaide Oval in 1993, he was hit on the helmet by West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop, prompting his batting partner David Boon to tell him “there are no heroes in Test cricket” and urge him to retire hurt.

But the then 22-year-old Langer continued and made 20 in the first innings before backing that up by top-scoring with 54 in the second innings.

Perhaps the most significant blow Langer received was a sickening bouncer to the head from Makhaya Ntini in Johannesburg in 2006 that saw him taken to hospital.

Langer wanted to return to bat during that Test, despite being told he would be risking death.

“It was going to take me and probably a few other blokes to keep him in the dressing room if it had got down to that,” then-captain Ricky Ponting said at the time.

“He said to me then he wouldn’t have spoken to me ever again as long as he was alive. If it comes to that again, I am just going to have to knock him out.”

Smith facing similar worries

Langer revealed in 2016 that damage done by Ntini was “more psychological than physical”.

“I dreaded the thought of getting hit on the head again,” he said.

“I got home to Australia and Noddy [personal coach Noddy Holder] told me, ‘it’s time to retire’.

“He got very emotional about it. I told him I had to do the Ashes, we’d promised each other after losing 2005 we were going to win the urn back.

“It was horrible what I had to put myself through on the bowling machine.”

Langer did play on after that — with Australia, Western Australia and Somerset.

Some 13 years later, Smith stands as a more accomplished batsman than his coach and has already overcome significant challenges in his career thus far.

But when he next walks out to bat — whether that is at Headingley, Old Trafford or the Oval — he will no doubt have a bit more to worry about than before he encountered Jofra Archer at Lord’s.

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First posted August 20, 2019 07:27:25