JUSTIN Langer knows his maiden tour in charge of Australia gives every appearance of being a “disaster”.

But the new coach held high hopes the first trip in to the “jungle” for so many of the young playing group he brought with him, absent first-choice superstars in batting and bowling, would build character and not develop scars.

There were few bright lights through six games, all losses, including the first international T20 defeat in seven games after Australian conceded too many runs, yet again, at Edgbaston and skipper Aaron Finch didn’t get enough help to chase them down.

It wasn’t the sort of demoralising defeat that came when England racked up a world record 481 in a one-day game at Trent Bridge last week and Langer is all too aware his team has hit an opposition at the absolute peak of their powers.

The performance of England has indeed been breathtaking, their batsmen particularly devastating and their spin twins of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid have reinforced an all-too obvious Australian issue with slow bowling taking 28 wickets though the six matches.

Victorious English captain Eoin Morgan said Langer was the right man to pick up the pieces because he was too honest and wouldn’t let anything “paper over the cracks”.

But Langer said those cracks, particularly in white-ball cricket, were perhaps not as alarming as they appear because the group of players he had at his disposal, especially the young bowlers, won’t be too tormented by what they have endured.

“Light at the end of the tunnel, there’s no doubt about that,” Langer said following the final 28-run defeat of the tour.

“(I) knew it was going to be a big job knowing where we came from in South Africa. There’s been some great learning and some real positives that have come from this trip.

“On the surface it looks like a complete disaster but we have talked about a team for the World Cup and the Ashes and I think we have unlocked a few answers but it hurts when you get beaten particularly in England.”

Langer wouldn’t point fingers at players who had underperformed for him, like Marcus Stoinis who played all six games for just 76 runs and back-to-back second ball ducks to finish his horror tour.

Instead the coach said he was disappointed that the hard work that began in Brisbane, and included a team-building trip to the former battlefields of the western front, hadn’t returned any rewards.

“We started on the Western Front and started to build some camaraderie. The guys have worked so hard but been beaten by a better cricket team,” Langer said.

“It’s a very, very young bowling attack particularly and we haven’t taken any results away and they will feel they haven’t been rewarded for all the hard work they have been doing.”

He was hopeful too that those who took the most punishment, the bowlers who had been battered for more than 1700 runs in just five encounters, wouldn’t be scarred going forward.

Most of them are incredibly young in their international careers, guys like Billy Stanlake and Jhye Richardson particularly, have much to give and Langer expects them to ride the bumps and hit back.

“My first Test match was against the West Indies and it was pretty scary. You faced four fast West Indians and you are a skinny kid,” Langer said.

“I remember David Boon saying “Test cricket will never get tougher than this.” I thought he was just being nice to me but it was so true. I learnt something from it and I was tougher from it.

“When you look at Trent Bridge for our young blokes to get hit for 480-something it doesn’t get tougher Hopefully it will add some layers to their character and not scars.

“A few of the boys have walked into the jungle and we’ll see how they go, not only over the next six months, but over the next two or three or 10 years.”

Langer and the players travel to Zimbabwe on Friday (EST) for a T20 tri-series with Pakistan, and the search for the coach’s first win continues.