England pacer James Anderson has accused Australia teams of the past few years of attempting to be overly aggressive.
The all-time leading Test wicket-taking fast bowler looked back at England’s recent Ashes tour of Australia last winter with BBC’s Cricket Social.
“They thought that this is how Australians play,” said Anderson.
“They have tried too hard to be that stereotypical Australian team that are aggressive and go hard at people.”
Before the start of the series, Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon had stated that he would attempt to end the careers of some of England’s batsmen. Such comments, Anderson stated, were completely ‘out of character’ for the Australian team.
“Tim Paine is a genuinely nice guy, Mitchell Starc is not naturally aggressive despite being a fast bowler and even Steve Smith is a really good bloke – there is no real malice with anything he does – so it was really out of character,” the 36-year-old said.
Anderson and England were handed a 4-0 defeat in the series.
“The thing about wanting to be good blokes is that you can only be a good bloke if you really are a good one,” he added.
The Australian dressing room culture has come under fire ever since the team got embroiled in the ball-tampering episode that occurred in the tour of South Africa.
Skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were both handed one-year bans by Cricket Australia while coach Darren Lehmann tendered his resignation.
New coach Justin Langer and Test skipper Tim Paine have attempted to change the image ever since they were appointed to their respective roles.
The first true test of the ‘new’ Australia was on show earlier this week where Paine and his men held Pakistan to a draw in remarkable fashion in the first Test.