Justin Langer says no to India coach job after KL Rahul's ‘politics and pressure in team’ advice

The hunt is on for India's next head coach with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) not renewing Rahul Dravid's contract after the T20 World Cup next month. Several high-profile names, both Indian and otherwise, have been floated as potential candidates and a few of them have already ruled themselves out of contention.

Former Australia captain and Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting admitted that he had been approached informally during the 2024 IPL and that he had ruled himself out of it. Meanwhile, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanath said that the team's longtime head coach, Stephen Fleming, is not interested in taking the Indian job, which could mean him working for most of the year.

Ponting's former Australia teammate Justin Langer, meanwhile, ruled himself out of contention saying that the job of being a head coach of a side is exhausting. "It would be an amazing job, [but] I have [put myself out of contention]," Langer said on BBC's Stumped podcast. "I also know that it's an all-encompassing role, and having done it for four years with the Australian team, honestly, it's exhausting. And that's the Australian job!"

‘Never say never’

Langer, who was head coach of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, said that he had a conversation with the team's captain KL Rahul about what the Indian team is like. "You never say never," he said about taking up the job some time in the future. "And the pressure of doing it in India… I was talking to KL Rahul and he said, 'You know, if you think there's pressure and politics in an IPL team, multiply that by a thousand, [that's] coaching India. That was a good bit of advice, I guess. It would be an awesome job, but not for me at the moment," said Langer.

Langer had been Australia's head coach from May 2018 to February 2022. He had taken over in the immediate aftermath of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal and had initially earned praise for how he and captain Tim Paine led the team out of the situation.

However, the situation deteriorated towards the end and he resigned amid rumours of him falling out with the players and new captain Pat Cummins. Langer feels that the pressures that would come with coaching the Indian team might be far worse than anything he had to go through with Australia though.