One of the most hideous moments of a Test series came in 2018 when David Warner and Quinton De Kock squared off on a staircase during the first Test in Durban.

The confrontation was sparked by De Kock making a derogatory comment about Warner’s wife Candice, and her ‘fling’ with New Zealand boxer Sonny Bill Williams more than a decade earlier.

Warner described the sledge as “vile and disgusting” and it was also reported that De Kock’s vitriol followed Warner’s “hour-long attack on the field”.

Dramatic CCTV footage of Warner being restrained by teammates in an off-field confrontation with De Kock on the fourth day emerged. It even showed an infuriated Warner remonstrating with the South African as the teams walked to the change rooms during the tea break.

The opener had to be physically held back by Usman Khawaja and then forced into Australia’s change room by then skipper Steve Smith.

‘Being vocal and chirpy’ on the field is part of Australian cricket terminology. Playing hard but fair is what the Australians profess, though their doctrine doesn’t always border on the threshold of decency or decorum.

The men from Down Under have always shown the ugly side of the sport whenever they have been pushed into a corner. The 295-run loss to India in the opener of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has already opened a Pandora’s box amid a wave of criticism.

Pat Cummins’ team’s on-field optics has come under scrutiny with most pundits riling them as naive and soft targets. Their quiet conduct has been condemned with some even recalling the recently-retired Warner as an example of the tone that should’ve been set while fielding.

This “missing aura” has been blamed as one of the reasons for the home team’s failure. They can’t accept the fact that Yashasvi Jaiswal, 22, on his first tour to Australia had the gumption to tell Mitchell Starc “you’re bowling too slowly”. Worse still, Starc wasn’t even provoked.

Even debutant Harshit Rana showed the courage to have a go at Starc. Following a barrage of bouncers, Starc had to remind his former KKR teammate, “Harshit, I bowl faster than you... I bowl faster than you.”

Mohammed Siraj too joined the battering when Marcus Labuschagne was playing a game of patience with 2 runs off 52 deliveries. The fast bowler had an exchange of words with Labuschagne before Virat Kohli stepped in to
add fuel to the fire by purposely removing the bails to rile up the Australian.

But the change in character and good bloke image of the Australians since the Sandpapergate ball-tampering saga has stayed. Warner had always been on the howl before his suspension in the scandal when fielding in a close-in position.

“They run like a pack of dogs around you when you get close to that ball,” Faf Du Plessis summed it up once. It was all about winning, at any cost.

Cummins’ men’s timid body language and their refusal to work up a confrontation have sent shock waves in Australian cricket. “Just couldn’t believe this un-Australian on-field team persona” has been the common refrain.

Former fast bowler Mitchell Johnson believes that the Australian team should have shown more resilience and not allowed themselves to be intimidated by India’s young brigade.

“As an outsider watching on, I want to see some fight from this Australian side. Not a debutant and a young opening batter from India getting in the faces of our team on our turf and sledging Mitchell Starc saying he’s bowling too slow,” Johnson wrote in his column for The West Australian.

Johnson has reasons to feel aggrieved. When Kohli blasted 169 during the Boxing Day Test in 2014, Johnson flung a shy at the stumps that struck him in the back. Kohli winced but then smashed Johnson for boundaries and strode up to him to give him a piece of his mind.

“They were calling me a spoilt brat,” Kohli retorted later. “I said, ‘maybe that’s the way I am... I know you guys hate me and I like that.’”

Former captain Tim Paine also made the “right noises” during India’s tour in 2018. “I know he’s your captain, but you can’t seriously like him as a bloke. You couldn’t possibly like him,” Paine told Murali Vijay during the second Test in Perth.

“It was not that they always used to sledge. They did it when they felt threatened,” said former opener Devang Gandhi, who played the Adelaide Test against Steve Waugh’s team in 1999.

“I remember they used to target Sachin Tendulkar. He was the best and the most prized wicket. It was mainly banter and no unparliamentary language,” Devang recalled.

Warner always loved to play the role of a “pantomime villain”, but their habit of hurling the odd cheeky word to being abusive has seen a transformation. While there has been a generational change, the IPL too has played its part.

“There was no familiarity between the guys during the non-IPL days. But now there is friendship and bonding since they stay together for more than two months in a year. Look at Rana and Starc,” said Devang.

Gone are the days when Ian Chappell, Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting used to spell fear in the minds of the opposition. The fast bowlers were like goons ready to unleash hell on the batters with an unruly slip cordon waiting to celebrate. It came to be known as their brand of cricket.

But has less aggression meant a drop in performance level? Australia are still the title holders in the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup. Perhaps the current series will provide an insight.