Australia’s head coach, Justin Langer, in a recent documentary, ‘The Test,’ talks about the various circumstances the team had to face in the subsequent seasons, post the infamous South African tour.
Australian cricket’s pride received a major jolt after the Sandpaper Gate, which led to the one-year ban on their batting mainstay and leadership group in David Warner and Steve Smith.
India then toured Australia to face one of the weakest lineups the hosts ever dished out. The instance Langer talked about is of Perth Test, where Indian captain Virat Kohli’s antics on the field was getting to their skins.
India won the Test matches at Adelaide and Melbourne to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in Australian soil.
Looking at their state in the series, coach Langer and captain Tim Paine decided not to flare Kohli up. However, Langer conceded that Kohli’s action on the field enraged him, and he felt like a punching bag.
“I remember that afternoon (feeling) like a punching bag. We can’t fight back because it felt like we had our hands behind our backs, and we just had to take it,” Langer stated during the documentary.
“We were 1-0 down, but I felt that day Virat was getting under our skin. There is a difference between abuse and banter. There is no room for abuse. We don’t need to abuse him, but there is banter where you stick up for your mate,” concluded Langer.
India also went on to clinch the 3-match ODI Series and shared the T20I series 1-1, to complete their historic tour to Australia in 2018-19.
