Justin Langer in the frame for England coaching role after quitting Australia

All too aware of a desire within the dressing room he leaves, and offered only a short-term contract extension by a board that had put the pro in procrastination, Justin Langer quit as head coach of Australia on Saturday. The question now, after a week of bloodletting in English cricket, is whether one of the Baggy Green’s most devout acolytes will cross the Ashes divide.

And it will be asked. Andrew Strauss, England’s interim director of men’s cricket after Ashley Giles, Chris Silverwood and Graham Thorpe were sacked, is usually cautious when discussing recruitment. But at Lord’s on Friday he happily engaged with the subject of Langer’s candidacy, 24 hours before the decoupling from Cricket Australia was sealed, saying: “He will be one of the names [in the frame].”

Strauss is a longtime friend and admirer, writing in his 2013 autobiography that Langer was “one leader I consider myself very fortunate to have worked with” after their time at Middlesex. He also praised “a gritty little fighter” who, while “a little intense”, was “passionate, driven and hated the lazy, in-your-comfort-zone attitude displayed by so many county cricketers”.

Quite how England’s players would feel about this prospect is another matter. Hotels were shared throughout the Ashes, relations were cordial while a 4-0 pasting was being dispensed and the subject of Langer’s future was said to be a regular topic of chatter on the Australian side when he was not within earshot. By all accounts, little of it was positive nor hopeful of his contract being renewed.

Come the end of the series there was only one outcome. Three nights out from the fifth Test in Hobart a group that included the captain, Pat Cummins, David Warner, the assistant coaches, Michael