'Going to be hard to ignore': Just Langer on Cameron Bancroft's potential recall to Australia Test side

Former Australia coach Justin Langer believes Cameron Bancroft has all the potential to make a successful return to the national Test side after four years. Bancroft last played a Test for Australia in August 2019 during an Ashes Test against England at Lord’s. Bancroft had a successful season with the bat in the 2022-23 Sheffield Shield tournament with Western Australia, scoring 945 runs from 11 matches, including four centuries and a fifty. Langer said Bancroft has performed so well so that it was going to be hard for the selectors to ignore him. “I always believe you have got to be so good they can’t ignore you. And he has been so good, it’s going to be hard to ignore. That said, selection is tough. I don’t envy any selectors in any sport. What Cameron Bancroft is doing is all that he can do - make runs. It’s the only currency of value is runs, and he is making plenty of those at the moment,”  Langer told Sydney Morning Herald. Bancroft was one of the three Aussie cricketers, apart from Steve Smith and David Warner, to be involved in the infamous “Sandpapergate” controversy during the Cape Town Test against South Africa in 2018. Bancroft was suspended for nine months, and returned to competitive cricket in the Big Bash League with Perth Scorchers in December 2018. Langer feels Bancroft has gone onto become an “improved player” since the incident. “He has made consistently a lot of hundreds - you always judge a player on their hundreds because hundreds win games. You look at his balance at the crease, he is playing off the back and the front foot … he plays well in all three forms of the game, which tells me he’s an improved player. He’s worked a lot on himself as a person since South Africa,” commented Langer. Till date, Bancroft has played 10 Tests for Australia and has scored 446 runs, including three fifties.