"He'll play": Langer backs under under pressure opener

With scores of 3, 9*, 3 and 23 so far in the campaign, Harris appeared a man under pressure heading into the Melbourne Test, but Langer has given him his unequivocal backing.

"He'll play in the Test, no worries about that," Langer said on Thursday, pointing to Harris’ dominant domestic numbers.

"This is his home ground. He's played a lot at the MCG.

"He hasn't made the runs he'd like to so far, but he dominates domestic cricket.

"So he knows that he knows how to play.

"He's a fantastic bloke around the squad ... And we know he's a very good player.

"For him and for us we're hoping he plays well and gets a good partnership with Davey Warner in this Boxing Day Test match."

Having experienced similar pressure over his spot early in his Test career, Langer knows how valuable the backing of those that matter can be to a misfiring batter.

"That's absolutely one of the most important things in life, knowing people have got your back," Langer said.

"My experience, when Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Mark Taylor or Allan Border said 'you're in the team', you feel like you feel like Superman.

"You feel like you're important to the team and Marcus Harris is important to the team."

Alongside Cameron Green, Harris is the one member of the Australian top seven not to have made a major contribution with the bat so far in the series.

Langer, however, is confident a big innings is just around the corner.

"I think an opening partnership is very, very important," Langer said.

"We're really confident Marcus has got what it takes to be a successful Australian opening batsman.

"And what we see in the nets, what we see in domestic cricket all adds up to what is potentially a very good Test career.

"One of the building blocks of a great team is the opening partnership and top three.

"We're determined to get that right."