Langer admits to sleepless nights before Brisbane Test

SYDNEY: It says a lot about the challenges Justin Langer has faced in his short time as Australia coach that he admitted to having sleepless nights ahead of the Gabba Test against Sri Lanka, knowing the pressure the team were under not to be beaten at a ground that has become a banker for victory.

Langer also worried about how the decision to parachute Kurtis Patterson into the squad three days before the Test, then hand him a debut ahead of Will Pucovski, would be received.“I kept thinking before the game, imagine if we get beaten by Sri Lanka at the Gabba. That’s why I haven’t slept much the past week. Hopefully I’ll sleep a bit easier tonight,” Langer said.

He knew the late inclusion of Patterson, following his twin hundreds in the tour match, would divide opinion especially as it meant 20-year-old Pucovski was sidelined once the experience Joe Burns was also preferred in the final XI.

“We decided and it was controversial. To see how it would be received from the public picking someone from outside the [squad], spoke to a few people I trusted about it and we just felt it was a really common sense thing to do. You agonise more probably at this point of the season about what’s going to get reported on, if I’m completely frank. Hopefully I’ll get tougher over the years that way and won’t think about that.