Australia’s cricketers have sometimes “tried too hard to be aggressive” as they sought to live up a traditional stereotype of what is expected from them, England’s James Anderson said on Sunday.
For Anderson, England’s record wicket-taker in Tests, the memory of that difficult period appears still raw, with England also claiming that in 2015 Moeen Ali was called “Osama” by an unnamed Australian during that year’s Ashes.
“They have tried too hard to be that stereotypical Australian team that are aggressive and go hard at people,” Anderson, 36 told the BBC.
“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,” said Anderson.
