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Aussies to take lessons from England

Justin Langer believes anything can happen in the next 12 months, with Australia to play another four ODI series ahead of the 2019 World Cup

Justin Langer says Australia will draw important lessons from England’s style of play following their limited-overs whitewash in the UK and insists there is still plenty of time for his players to turn things around before next year’s World Cup.

Australia’s 5-0 ODI series defeat was followed by a 28-run defeat in the one-off T20I on Wednesday evening, with an explosive 84 from captain Aaron Finch not enough to snap his team’s losing streak.

There’s less than a year left until the start of the next 50-over World Cup, to be played in the United Kingdom in June and July next year, but Langer says the results on the current tour can’t be considered an accurate predictor of where his team will be in 12 months’ time.

“We talk about England now and they are playing brilliant cricket,” Langer said following Australia’s defeat at Edgbasto.

“They are confident, they’re scoring 100s and they’ve been playing together for a long time.

“They have the core together and they take confidence from it, at the moment we haven’t got that.

“What I do know is we will learn lessons from how England are playing at the moment, but it is hard to compare us because we are at such a different stage of our journey.

“They fielded brilliantly, their running between the wickets was unbelievable, they ran us ragged, they were fearless with the bat and their spinners bowled really well.

“We’ve had a lot of success for a very long period in one-day cricket in Australia so we’ll learn a bit from England and a lot from what we’ve done in the past.”

Match wrap: England make it six from six with T20 win

Australia are currently missing six key members of their best one-day XI, with Steve Smith and David Warner currently serving bans while Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitch Marsh all missed the tour through injury.

Smith and Warner will be eligible to play by the time the World Cup rolls around and Langer is also confident the players who have been given opportunities in their absence also have time to develop before the opening match against Afghanistan on June 1 next year.

“If (they) come back in, all of a sudden you've got 800 games of experience again and we've got a lot more experienced team,” Langer said.

“And if some of these young guys who are gaining some experience here, or the guys who have taken it up – Shaun Marsh in the one-day series, he scored two hundreds. Ashton Agar has been really good with the ball and shown a lot with the bat. Billy Stanlake has had some good games.

“If we can get some of those guys learning and growing and if some of the other guys are available, who knows what could happen in 12 months' time?”

The Australians are scheduled to play another 16 ODIs before the first ball is bowled in the 2019 World Cup, which would give Langer a total of 21 matches in charge to work his magic.

This includes three ODIs against South Africa and three against India on home soil this summer, before two five-match one-day series early next year – away series against India, and Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

In addition to the domestic JLT One-Day Cup, where aspiring players will be presented with an opportunity to push their claims, the country’s best players will also be exposed to Australia’s T20I schedule, with an upcoming tri-series against Pakistan and Zimbabwe, and T20s against South Africa and India slated for the home summer.

Smith and Warner meanwhile will likely have a strictly white-ball diet leading into the tournament through various domestic tournaments worldwide, climaxing with the IPL next April-May.