Justin Langer, the current
Australian coach and former opener for the Baggie Greens, on Friday expressed
his ‘respect’ for Indian skipper Virat Kohli for putting his family ahead of
cricket, AFP reported.

Kohli and his wife,
Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma, are expecting their first child in January next
year, for which Kohli is set to return home after the inaugural test in Adelaide
ends on December 21.

Given he would be
quarantining for 14 days after heading back to Australia, Captain Kohli would
be missing out on the last three tests being conducted in Melbourne, Sydney and
Brisbane.

Read more: Indian team reaches Sydney, Virat Kohli to get rugby legend’s suite during quarantine

“Virat Kohli is probably
the best player I’ve ever seen in my life for so many reasons, not only batting
but his energy and passion for the game, the way he fields,” Langer said in a
press conference.

“I cannot believe he
displays the energy he does in everything he does and I’ve got so much respect
for him. I’ve also got respect for him in the sense that he’s made this decision
(to return for the birth). He’s a human being like all of us … if I was ever giving
advice to any of my players, I would always say never ever miss the birth of
your children because it is one of the great things you’ll ever do,” Langer
further added.

Accepting that his
absence would make a difference, Langer warned that they could not afford to be
complacent because of it.

On Thursday,
Australia announced their 17-man Test squad including highly-rated young
players Will Pucovski and Cameron Green, with the former being highly
speculated to replace Joe Burns as David Warner’s partner in the Aussie opening
pair.

Langer, however, claimed
that no imminent changes are bound to happen at the moment.

“They (Burns and
Warner) have a real synergy, they work well together, have chemistry. So at
this point I’d say that will remain the same.”

On the Indian side,
wherein, Rohit Sharma’s not being in the squad despite generating a well-rounded
performance in the IPL has started to raise questions among the fans.

Sharma has scored
332 runs in 12 matches in the current IPL season.