Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch is expecting his India counterpart Virat Kohli to be verbal during the tour Down Under but doesn’t expect him to sledge.
Australian cricket is under a revamp after an independent review into the team and organisational culture accused the country’s “arrogant” cricket board of having played a part in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa earlier this year.
Former Australia captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner, along with opener Cameron Bancroft, were handed lengthy suspensions by Cricket Australia for conniving to tamper with the ball using sandpaper in Newlands.
Since then, new head coach Justin Langer has pledged to change the win-at-all-costs culture in the Australian team.
Kohli has said in two of his press conferences prior to the start of the series that his team will also not engage in sledging or abuse unless provoked by the opposition.
“If the opposition is aggressive towards you, then you have to counter it. We have never been the team that started anything,” he said on Tuesday in Brisbane ahead of the first Twenty20 International.
“On a personal level, I don’t find the need to go and find these things anymore,” Kohli had said before departing for Australia. “I have enough belief in my ability, I can play without a reason to pump myself up.”
However, Finch said that Kohli will be verbal as that brings the best out of him.
“Virat plays the game that gets the best out of himself, and I think that at times, for him that’s about being verbal for his team, and pumping them up and being right in the contest,” the 32-year-old was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
“So the verbal won’t change whatsoever – I think what [Kohli] was referring to was his aggression, but ‘verbal’ is encouragement for teammates. It’s not abuse or anything like that.”
The Australia captain added, “You see how passionate he is about the game, and it’s not just when he plays for India, it’s when he plays for anyone, he’s the same.
“So in terms of verbal, it’s not going to change at all – it’ll be still fierce and he’ll have a presence, no doubt.
“But whether it’s banter or a bit of sledging here or there, I don’t expect that.”
Australia were beaten in both white-ball formats by South Africa in recent weeks, but Finch is confident they can turn their fortunes around with a more assertive approach.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity for us to come out and express ourselves, play some great attacking cricket, take the game on and really try and take it to India,” he said.
Finch believes Australia are close to winning their first series since new coach Langer took over, after Darren Lehmann stepped down following the tampering row.
“India are in great form but we feel as though we’ve been building really nicely without getting results going our way so far,” he said.
With inputs from AFP
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