Harbhajan Singh’s verbal spat with Andrew Symonds during the Sydney Test of 2008 and Virat Kohli’s outburst during last summer’s Adelaide Test epitomise the tense nature of Australia-India clashes.
And while both sides have worked hard to ensure matches are played in the right spirit, Australia captain George Bailey is expecting a fiery World Twenty20 Super Eights clash at Colombo’s Premadasa Stadium on Friday night.
The abrasive Harbhajan celebrated his return to international cricket after more than a year out of the game by taking 4-12 against a clueless England batting lineup last Sunday.
Kohli, voted earlier this month as the ICC’s one-day international player of the year, has struck innings of 50 and 40 against Afghanistan and England in the World T20 and is also building himself up for a big game against Australia.
“We have players who probably engage in some of that and players who don’t,” a relaxed Bailey said on Thursday.
Bailey says sledging India’s players and handling the banter they fire back at the Australians hasn’t been part of the team’s tactical discussions this week.
“That side of things you really focus on what you do. You don’t go out of your way,” Bailey says.
Bailey admits opening batsman David Warner is one player in his camp who’ll be keen to get in the faces of India’s bowlers.
“You’ll find that most of those guys who like to verbal, they instigate it,” Bailey said.
“That’s the way they get their juices flowing. It gets them switched on.
“Very rarely do those people wait for it to kick off. They like to start the fire.”
While Australia are expected to take an unchanged side into the game, their preparation has been a challenge with a six-day break from last Saturday’s win over West Indies.
Australia staged an eight-overs-per-side game on Wednesday in an attempt to simulate match pressure at training.
“What we’d like to focus on is if you can keep some wickets in the shed for the back end then India’s bowlers have been put under a bit of pressure and you can score quite well,” Bailey said.
Bailey says opener Shane Watson, who has risen to No.3 on the ICC T20 batting rankings following his scores of 51 and 41 not out in the group stage, is the key to Australia’s tournament hopes.
Watson has also claimed five wickets.
“He would be one of the most feared players in the competition,” Bailey said.
“There’s no doubt his form in the early part of the tournament is a key to us winning and how far we go into the tournament is going to depend on how well Watto plays.”
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