Amazon Prime release trailer for The Test – but Justin Langer will NOT feature
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The arrival of Pat Cummins’ reign as Australian Test captain is central to the second season of The Test, Amazon’s behind-the-scenes documentary about the Australian cricket team.
The four-part second season will be available on Amazon’s Prime Video from early next year and will include a 4-0 England hammering with Australia holding the Ashes last summer.
The series also plunged into a narrow win in Australia’s first Test series in Pakistan in 24 years and a difficult test series in crisis-torn Sri Lanka.
Australia’s win in The Ashes features prominently in the second series of The Test
All of the above takes place at ‘a tumultuous time for the leadership of the Australian men’s cricket team’, set against the backdrop of Tim Paine’s resignation as captain and the bitter departure of Justin Langer.
A trailer released Tuesday by Amazon Prime Video opens with a clip narrated by Mitchell Marsh.
“We don’t own the Baggy Green,” he says.
“We understand the privilege we have to wear the Baggy Green.”
The trailer features footage of Travis Head slamming his bat in the locker room after being fired in Galle, while David Warner angrily slams a fridge door in the same Test.
Australia won the first Test in Galle by 10 wickets, but suffered a disastrous inning loss in the second match at the same venue.
Meanwhile, Nathan Lyon describes one of the tests against Pakistan as “the worst I’ve ever been involved in.”
High scoring draws in Rawalpindi and Karachi – where Pakistan skipped 171 to save the match – was followed by a 115-point win in Lahore, as Australia won a Test series in Asia for the first time in 11 years.
The trailer shows Travis Head hitting the wall in anger with his bat in Sri Lanka
David Warner can slam a fridge in frustration during a test in Galle
Nathan Lyon (right) describes a test in Pakistan as the worst he’s ever been part of
England’s thrashing in the Ashes also features prominently and the trailer released on Tuesday shows Mitchell Starc bowling Rory Burns with the first ball of the series.
The short clip also features Travis Head scoring a century off 85 balls in The Gabba and Scott Boland taking an astonishing six wickets for just seven runs on his debut in the second innings of the Boxing Day Test.
Usman Khuwaja, meanwhile, describes the challenges of playing for Australia and can be seen celebrating his successive centuries at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the fourth Test.
Lyon takes on the role of head cheerleader again as the Aussies toast their Ashes triumph by drinking beer from the glass urn now given to the winners as a trophy.
Mitchell Starc (left) got the perfect start to Australia’s Ashes defense in Brisbane
Starc removed Rory Burns with the first ball of the series at the Gabba
The celebrations after England’s 4-0 beating in the Ashes are prominent
Marsh also closes the story in the trailer, underlining the theme of the second season.
“We have a direction we want to go in,” he says.
‘Like, this is from Pat’ [Cummins] team. And this is our team.’
Langer and Paine, who both played prominent roles in the first series of The Test, are notable for their absence in the second season.
Tim Paine resigned from his role as Australia’s test captain last November
New skipper Pat Cummins led the Aussies to victory in Pakistan in their first series in the country in 24 years in March
Langer coached Australia’s T20 World Cup glory and until Ashes Glory to step down less than a month after Australia kept the urn.
The former Australian opener left his role in February after he was not offered the long-term deal he wanted, with Cricket Australia offering a contract to keep the lead until the end of the 2022 T20 World Cup.
His position has been the subject of debate since the summer of 2021, when Australia lost a test series at home to India and there were reports of dissatisfaction with his methods.
Speaking to NewsCorp, Langer’s agent James Henderson said the former Australia coach had chosen not to add his vote to the second series of The Test.
Justin Langer resigned as Australia head coach in February
Some Australian players were reportedly dissatisfied with Langer’s ‘intensity’
“We understood that this documentary was a lot about the players and their stories,” he said. “Based on that, it was an easy decision for Justin to respect that and not get involved.”
Paine, meanwhile, stepped down from his role as captain last November after a 2017 sexting scandal involving one-time Cricket Tasmania employee Renee Ferguson went public.
Prime Video Australia’s head of content Tyler Bern said “running a second season was an obvious choice” following the success of the eight-episode first run, which charted the reform of the Australian test team. after the ball mess scandal.
Richard Ostroff, Cricket Australia’s Head of Broadcast and Production added: “After the success of Season One, we knew the bar was high. […] Through the ups and downs of the past 12 months, the players have shown outstanding leadership and dedication to making our country proud.”