SA vs AUS | David Warner loves the banter from passionate South African crowd, reveals Aaron Finch
Skipper Aaron Finch has said that David Warner loves to play with all the banter by the South African crowds on their return to South Africa since the sandpaper scandal of 2018. Meanwhile, head coach Justin Langer said that his team will continue trying to regain the respect of the cricketing world.
For their role in ball-tampering during the third Test in Cape Town in 2018, Steve Smith and David Warner had served a year-long ban before returning to the international scene at the ODI World Cup last year. With the Aussies now set to play three each of T20Is and ODIs, with the first T20I on Friday at the Wanderers Stadium, Finch and Co. are expecting a frosty welcome as their star-duo has been included in both squads.Â
"South African crowds are very passionate and very vocal. We're expecting that. David loves that banter coming from the crowd. It gets him into the game. I don't think it's going to make much difference to our group. We're going to play cricket with a smile on our face," Finch told AFP at the team's arrival press conference.
According to Langer, both the World Cup and the Ashes series that followed were dress rehearsals for the likely reception Smith and Warner will face at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.Â
"It was a tough (England) tour for those two guys. I was really proud of the way they let their bat do the talking and were great ambassadors off the field, so hopefully, they'll be looking forward to getting back into it and playing good cricket here," Langer said.
The head coach also noted that the 2018 tour and the incidents that had happened helped the Aussies to pause and rethink their cricketing culture.Â
"It was obviously a very hard tour last time but the way our guys have moved on, it gave us a great opportunity to reassess where we're at in Australian cricket. We've talked about making Australians proud of us again, earning that respect, not only from the Australian public and our past players but also across the world," Langer added.
The Aussies beat India in India in an ODI series ahead of the World Cup, before reaching the semi-final in England. They then retained the Ashes on away soil before thrashing Pakistan and New Zealand at home.
"We're playing really good cricket, the numbers will tell you that, we're also playing it in great spirit. I'm very hopeful we can continue to do that because that's how we all want to see cricket played. We've done it for 18 months now, there's absolutely no reason why that can't continue,” Langer added.