Boxing clever: Langer, Aussies channel 'The Greatest'

Just as a stolen bicycle triggered events that transformed Cassius Clay into 'The Greatest', so Justin Langer hopes the Test victory pickpocketed by England at Headingley might lift his cricket team to earn acclaim from an already memorable Ashes series.

Langer, who has been an enthusiastic amateur boxer and martial arts exponent, invoked the journey of former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali as a parable for what confronts Australia's men's Test outfit.

After seemingly having the Ashes urn in their keeping on the final day of the third Test against England, Langer and his men saw it pinched from their grasp by Ben Stokes's audacious last-day heroics.

In Langer's mind, that unexpected plot twist might unleash the same response in his men as did 12-year-old Clay's discovery that his bike had been stolen while he was searching for free sweets inside an exhibition hall in his home town of Louisville, Kentucky in 1954.

The incensed boy was told to begin his search for the missing wheels in the building's basement, where a serving police officer ran a boxing program and from where history was subsequently forged.

While Langer draws no direct comparison between Ali's rise to become perhaps the greatest sportsperson of the 20th Century and Australia's failure to secure the Ashes urn which remains up for grabs, he recognises the powerful analogy the tale offers.

"Champions have all had times of adversity, whether it's in business, sport or life," Langer said in Manchester where the fourth Ashes Test begins on Wednesday.

"The ones who come back from it … think about Muhammad Ali getting his bike stolen.

"That was the fire he needed to become the greatest boxer of all time.

"We felt a bit like we got the Ashes stolen the other day.

"Now we've got to work out what we're going to do, and use that as fire.

"We're not going to feel sorry for ourselves and let it slip.

"The great players and great teams – in business and life – they have their ups and downs, but they always fight back from it.

"You wouldn't see one champion player, one champion team, one champion business that hasn't done that."

Langer's observation came less than an hour after England's long-serving fast bowler, and second-most prolific Test wicket-taker Stuart Broad had attempted to land an early softening-up blow from the opposite corner.

At a media conference at Old Trafford on Monday, Broad was asked if he believed the pummeling that Australia's bowlers and boundary fielders received from Stokes at Headingley might have left them with lingering scars as well as bruised pride.

In couching his answer in enthusiasm for the interest and intensity that has been injected into this Ashes contest as a direct result of England's unlikely win at Leeds, Broad could not resist a short jab into his opponents' ribs.

"The language they will have been using is 'let's forget about it quickly and move on'," Broad said, paraphrasing the message to have come from the Australia entourage over the past week.

"Any loss hangs over you for a period of time.

"But a loss where you feel like you could have, or should have, won is obviously going to stay with you.

"I've never played in an Ashes series as closely matched as this one.

"Man for man, the teams are so close and you can see that with punches being thrown by both sides and how we're soaking it up.

"You're turning up each morning as a player, desperate for a good day but you just don't know what will happen."

It's not just in mindset and in phraseology that the two cricket heavyweights have differed in the aftermath of England's one-wicket win at Headingley.

After a painful review of the final hour that cost them an unassailable advantage in the fight for the urn, Australia immediately re-entered the ring for a sparring session against a challenger from a far inferior division, county outfit Derbyshire.

Meanwhile, having celebrated their historic win on Britain's hottest recorded August bank holiday with cold beer and fast food, England's players began a week-long break that only saw them reconvene as a squad in damp, cold Manchester the following Monday.

As if to highlight the benefits derived from a prolonged breather as opposed to Australia's ongoing work commitments while England's long summer of cricket stretched into autumn, Broad enthused about the restorative powers of a holiday.

"We talked at breakfast (in Manchester) about how fresh everyone felt, how energetic everyone looked," he said on Monday afternoon.

"Cricket is a sport where, when you have three or four days away, you come back so excited to train and so excited to put in that fight and effort.

"We all had breakfast together at 8.30am and there was a lot of smiles, a lot of energy, still re-living moments from last week.

"But also, how enjoyable it's been to go home, get the barbeque on, see the family and get ready for this week."

When that dichotomy was raised with Langer, who had made a point of ensuring all members of his squad were present throughout the Derbyshire game (even those not in the playing XI), he stood his ground.

And squared his jaw.

"In my opinion, the best practice is match practice," he said. "We rested a number of our first-eleven players to give them a mental break and a physical break.

"There were six or seven guys who had a good break in Derby.

"We got plenty out of that game … we played good cricket.

"To win a three-day game in two-and-a-bit days is a pretty good effort.

"We're worried about our preparation, not England's."

2019 Qantas Ashes Tour of England

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner.

England squad: Joe Root (c), Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Craig Overton, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes (vc), Chris Woakes.

First Test: Australia won by 251 runs at Edgbaston

Second Test: Match drawn at Lord's

Third Test: England won by one wicket at Headingley

Fourth Test: September 4-8, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: September 12-16, The Oval