Pakistanis might put 10 blokes around you: Langer, Khawaja’s heated altercation

A new documentary has brought to light a heated confrontation between Australian coach Justin Langer and top-order batsman Usman Khawaja, before a Test match against Pakistan in 2018.

At a practice session ahead of that Test, Langer had put a training drill into place where batsmen had to rotate between nets each time they were dismissed, despite admitting that "I know it pisses you off."

Later when Langer asked the team for feedback after the session, Khawaja was the first to speak, according to Amazon Prime's The Test, on the matter.

"I think we were more worried about getting out than actually trying to execute better and execute well," said Khawaja.

"Yeah well what happens when you get out in a game?" Langer responded angrily.

"If I'm getting out two times in the nets, I know I'm getting out two times in the nets. I'm playing f---ing Test cricket here," Khawaja spoke again.

"Well what are you worried about?" Langer questioned.

"I'm worried about harping too much on negatives," Khawaja replied.

"Well don't get out. What we are saying, is we're not going to accept you getting out, because for the last 20 times in Australian cricket, we've had 20 batting collapses. 20 f---ing batting collapses. We've got to get better at it,” Langer insisted. "It's got nothing to do with how we setup the net session, because the Pakistanis, they might put 10 blokes around you. This isn't f---ing fair. Or they might put 10 blokes on the boundary. Oh this isn't going to suit my f---ing style. You've got to deal with it.”

"You've got to deal with it in Test cricket. So we're going to put pressure on you. Now if you guys want to say, 'This isn't suiting my f---ing style,' no worries. It will suit your style when we don't have f---ing 20 batting collapses every time we play for Australia," he added.

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Later in the documentary, Langer opened up on how to get the best out of Khawaja.  

"I love Uzzie, he's got his own mind, he's strong in his beliefs, and if you treat him with respect you usually get your best results," he said.

Khawaja was instrumental in the first Test, scoring 85 and 141, as Australia managed to play out a draw.

His second innings century, which lasted more than eight hours as Australia fought to save the match, is generally considered as one of his finest innings.