London, August 24: Justin Langer marked his comeback to Test cricket with a gritty 102 not out on the first day of the fifth Test against England here at The Oval on Thursday.

But the helmet he was wearing had been on a much more remarkable journey than even Langer himself had taken on the long road back to the Test team.

"There was an expedition of South Australians that went to climb Mount Everest before this tour," the 30-year-old Western Australia left-hander explained after his team finished the day on 324 for two.

"This guy asked me if he could have some memorabilia. I had this old helmet sitting in my cupboard at home: I couldn't give them my 'baggy green' (cap) so I gave them this Australian helmet," added last season's Middlesex captain playing in his first Test of the series.

"It came back and one of guys who signed it 'Justin have a great Ashes tour' got 100m from the top of Mount Everest but died along the way," said Langer, whose helmet had a new grille but was otherwise unaltered.

"It's a pretty sad story but the other guy who signed it made it to the top and came down so maybe it was an omen.

"But for the last eight weeks I've been throwing this omen out the door thinking someone's not looking after me," said Langer in a reference to his poor form before this match.

"It might have been a good omen or a bad omen but it worked today." It certainly did, the helmet preventing serious injury when Langer was felled by an Andrew Caddick bouncer and had to retire hurt.

On a lighter note Langer said he had no problems with the treatment he had received from Britain's National Health Service, a regular source of complaint among voters here.

"Excellent, thank you. There are some very pretty girls down there," joked Langer, who added he would bat on Friday.

He was only playing in this match because regular opener Michael Slater had been dropped after a run of low scores.

But Langer said he was backing Slater to bounce back. "I had a good talk to 'Slats' yesterday (Wednesday). Obviously having been in his shoes I know exactly how he is feeling.

"He just needs a little bit of love at the moment and we're a pretty close team so he'll get plenty of love within the team.

"My advice to him would be you never know what's round the corner. He probably can't see past his nose at the moment.

"But he's a great batsman, he's made 14 Test hundreds. He's probably the most exciting opening batsman besides (Sanath) Jayasuriya (of Sri Lanka) in world cricket. He'll be disappointed at the moment but I'm sure he'll be OK."