India vs Australia | Aaron Finch ready to redefine aggression as means for success

The Newlands ball-tampering scandal put a black mark in the reputation of the Australian cricket team. The incident blew the “hard but fair” line out of the proportion, and the self-assigned moral high ground was sunk to put their credibility in tatters. Since then, however, Justin Langer and Tim Paine have been trying hard to bring the reputation back with the introduction of football-style handshake before the match and staying away from sledging. However, with the high-profile India series starting, the stakes are high again, but Finch suggested that the team would redefine aggression and won’t take the route of sledging.

The last time Australia toured India, it was remembered for all the wrong reasons. While the series undoubted produced some excellent cricket, due to the brain fade incident and Steve Smith calling Murali Vijay a cheat for no reason, it was a series that will be remembered for the longest time. At the centre of it though was Virat Kohli, who failed to make the series count to signal one of the few low series in his career, but never stopped using his mouth - on the field and in the press conference hall. While Finch expected familiar intensity from Kohli, he is also mindful of what others can do in this team set-up.

"It's not abuse, you see how passionate he is about the game, and it's not just when he plays for India when he plays for anyone it's the same. In terms of verbal it's not going to change at all, it'll still be fierce and he'll have a presence out there, but whether it's banter or a bit of sledging here and there I don't expect that.

"Most of the Indian guys have been here before and know what to expect, so with so much cricket being played these days it's probably not as foreign as what it was going back some time. There's an opportunity to use that as our go-to, no doubt. It's going to be an exciting series, India are in great form, and we feel as though we've been building really nicely without the results going our way so far. It'll be good fun."