Australian coach Justin Langer believes his players would be seen as “the worst blokes in the world” if they were to celebrate wickets like Virat Kohli.
Langer has also taken umbrage at Sachin Tendulkar’s “defensive mindset” tweet following Australia’s slow scoring rate on Day 2 of the first Test against India at Adelaide.
Kohli was his usual animated self on Friday, celebrating Australian wickets with gusto. Langer said he "loved seeing that passion" but felt Australia players would be judged differently if they did the same.
He’s (Kohli) a superstar of the game and he’s the captain. We’ve talked for as long as I can remember in Australian cricket teams that you want to keep the opposition captain down as much as possible. You love seeing that passion in sport. Mind you I think if we did that at the moment we’d be the worst blokes in the world. It’s a fine line isn’t it?Justin Langer to Fox Cricket
"That's the truth of it, but I love seeing the passion, that is great passion. But as I said there's a fine line," Langer added.
The head coach did concede the team was playing to a different standard of scrutiny, a fallout of the ball-tampering fiasco in South Africa in March.
Legendary batsman Tendulkar’s comments on Twitter, too, did not go down very well with Langer, who defended his inexperienced batting line-up’s approach.
"The teams that Sachin would have played against started with Allan Border and David Boon, and Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh, and Ricky Ponting," Langer told Fox Cricket.
"Guys that had great Test match experience and they knew their game, were comfortable in their own skin and they knew what to expect. Whereas we've got a team at the moment who are very inexperienced in Test match cricket, particularly our batting side."
Tendulkar, who played his first match against Australia in 1991, and his last in 2013, faced a different era of Australian cricket compared to the current side that is rebuilding in the wake of the ball-tampering fiasco.
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