‘Australia used to be arrogant, their aggression died down after ball-tampering saga in 2018’ – Umar Gul

The Australian team of the late 90s and early 2000s is probably the best team to have played cricket. They played as a unit, where each player had the skills to win a game on his own. The team also was very aggressive and used to get under the skin of the opposition. Over the years, with the retirement of key players, Australian cricket saw a steady decline. With not so great performances, the aggression also died down. More so, several off-field controversies also dented their reputation. One famous incident that made a mockery of Australian cricket was the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, which saw senior players like David Warner and Steve Smith getting banned for a year.

Former Pakistan pacer Umar Gul believes that Australian cricket lost its aggression after the 2018 sandpaper gate saga. “As a nation, we as Pakistanis are friendly by nature. We do adopt aggression depending on the opposition. If you look at Australia’s history, they used to be extremely aggressive and arrogant,” he said as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.

“Their cricketing board enforced a change in attitude following the ball-tampering incident which took place in South Africa. I have noticed that since then, Australia’s demeanor on the pitch has changed quite a lot and that isn’t always a bad thing,” he further added.

Notably, Australia recently toured Pakistan, winning the Test and T20I series, while losing the ODIs. The newly-appointed bowling coach of Pakistan, Gul stated that Australia’s tour of Pakistan will motivate other nations to come and play in Pakistan.

“We should thank the Australian cricket team and their entire management for visiting Pakistan after 24 years. Their efforts will open doors to other international teams visiting Pakistan as well and this is all-around good news for Pakistan and the supporters,” he concluded.