Adam Gilchrist believes Justin Langer would be a ‘good fit’ for England but ‘needs time to heal’

Former Australia captain Adam Gilchrist believes Justin Langer would be a ‘good fit’ as England coach but needs ‘time to heal’ after being let go by his native country.

Langer shockingly quit as Australia coach at the start of this month, just a few weeks after leading his country to a 4-0 Ashes win over England – who sacked coach Chris Silverwood after the damning display.

And Gilchrist, a former Australia team-mate of Langer’s, believes the opportunity to get the 51-year-old and England talisman Ben Stokes working together would be good for all parties.

Adam Gilchrist believes Justin Langer (above) is a ‘good fit’ for England coach but needs time

Langer (left) quit his role as Australia coach after their 4-0 Ashes triumph over England

‘I get the feeling that doing it straight away… it just might be a bit soon,’ Gilchrist told The Shackles Are Off podcast: ‘He’s been hurt, you don’t need to be Einstein to work that out.

‘He needs a bit of time to heal and dust himself off and work out whether he sees himself as a career coach or was coaching Australia the pinnacle and he now wants to go off and do a number of other things.

‘I don’t think he’s going to be short of opportunities, so he needs to work that out. I don’t say this in a provocative sense, but I do look at the setup at the moment with England and think “Jheeze, he would be a good fit.”

Gilchrist (right) is a former Australia team-mate of the now-unemployed Langer (left)

‘It’d be awesome to see Justin Langer working with Ben Stokes. The work ethic from Stokes is on par with Justin Langer’s work ethic and that would be intriguing to see what could grow and develop and sprout from that.

‘And Joe [Root] as captain I think would benefit from a figure like Justin alongside him.’

England are still reeling from their Ashes disappointment which resulted in not only Silverwood’s dismissal but an exit for managing director Ashley Giles.

Interim England managing director Sir Andrew Strauss (above) has talked up Langer before

An interim management team of Sir Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood was put in place for England’s upcoming tour of West Indies, with a view to appointing a permanent option by the summer. 

And Strauss revealed earlier this month that Langer is one of the names under consideration for the England post.

‘I know him well,’ Strauss said. ‘On the surface, he’s done a very good job of things with the Australian cricket team. So I wouldn’t rule him out.’