Australia´s Langer reveals Handscomb will face England in World Cup semis

BIRMINGHAM: Australia coach Justin Langer revealed on Tuesday that Peter Handscomb will be picked to face hosts England in their Cricket World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston.Handscomb was left out of Australia´s initial 15-man squad after the return of Steve Smith and David Warner from year-long ball-tampering bans.But the 28-year-old was drafted in as a replacement for the injured Shaun Marsh, and with Usman Khawaja ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a hamstring problem, there is now a batting vacancy that Handscomb will fill on Thursday."I´ll tell you the truth: Peter will definitely play, 100 percent," Langer told reporters in Birmingham on Tuesday."He deserves it. He was so unlucky not to be in the initial squad after what he´d done to help us get to that point."He´s in good form, he´s played well for Australia A and gives us that nice balance through the middle order. He´s on top of his game."Langer also confirmed Matthew Wade would come into the squad in place of Khawaja, pending approval from the International Cricket Council´s technical committee."He´ll just come in as the official replacement for Usman Khawaja. Like everyone in the squad there´s potential for him to play, definitely," Langer said."He´s a real seasoned pro and he´s had an unbelievable 12 months or so in domestic cricket. With his experience, if he plays, then we´re confident he´ll do a really good job."Marcus Stoinis, who has been struggling with a side injury, provided some good news for Australia when he was passed fit to play after a workout in the nets.Langer also explained why he led Australia´s players on a barefoot walkabout at the ground on Monday before the group shared stories on the pitch in a so-called "bonding circle"."It´s a nice thing to do. Haydos (Matthew Hayden) and I used to do it as a bit of a ritual before every Test match," he said."It was just walking a lap of the oval with our shoes off. We could have done it with our shoes on and nobody would have said anything."If you go back 12 months there wasn´t much to be relaxed and chilled about in Australian cricket, was there? We went through a major crisis in our cricket. It didn´t just affect our cricket, it affected our country."We´ve got to work hard on being more humble in what we do and being focused on playing good cricket."

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