Australian opening batsman Usman Khawaja has hit back at South Africa's Faf du Plessis over comments relating to the infamous ball tampering scandal of 2018.
The scandal has been in the news more than anyone would like to admit in recent times thanks to David Warner's push to have his leadership ban overturned, however, new comments from Faf du Plessis in his autobiography have drawn a response from Khawaja, who was part of the Australian camp during the series.
The comments from Du Plessis, obtained by News Corp, reveal South Africa had suspected Australia of ball tampering before the series arrived in Cape Town.
“During the first Test in Durban, the Australian pace attack had got the ball to reverse insanely,” du Plessis writes.
“Mitchell Starc claimed nine wickets and, although I regard him as one of the best proponents of reverse-swing bowling I have ever seen or faced, those deliveries in Durban were borderline unplayable.
“He would come in around the wicket with a badly deteriorated ball and get it to hoop past us.
“Our balls had also reversed but not nearly as much as theirs.
“We suspected that someone had been nurturing the ball too much to get it to reverse so wildly, and we watched the second Test at St George's through binoculars, so that we could follow the ball more closely while Australia was fielding.
“When we noticed that the ball was going to David Warner quite often – our changing room must have looked like a birdwatching hide as we peered intently through our binoculars.
“There was a visible difference between how Mitchell Starc got the ball to reverse in the first Test in Durban and the final Test in Johannesburg. We now know that there was an obvious reason for that.”
Australia disputes the claim that they ball tampered prior to the Cape Town Test, however, Usman Khawaja has suggested South Africa were getting the ball to reverse swing just as much as the Australian camp.
Immediately after the incident, some of the blame was put on South African TV broadcasters, who spotted Cameron Bancroft in the act.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald at the T20 World Cup, Khawaja said South Africa said earlier in that series, and in a prior Test at the WACA, the Proteas had the ball reverse swinging more than Australia did, before saying he giggled at Du Plessis' comments.
“Even in the second Test of that series [in Port Elizabeth], South Africa reverse swung the ball before we did,” Khawaja told the publication.
“So for him to say that ... they were reverse swinging it before we were. It's easy pointing fingers but I remember Kagiso Rabada blew my stumps apart at the WACA, reverse swinging it first innings and that was after 40 overs.
“So they were always very good at reverse swinging and it's very rare to see reverse swing at the WACA other than on day five.
So while he says that, there was a period of time where reverse swing was very prominent in the game. How every team was doing it, I can't really speak for that, but I giggled to myself when I saw those comments.”
