Dawid Malan has revealed England had suspicions Australia were ball-tampering during the Ashes series.
Although Malan stopped short of outright accusing Steve Smith’s team of wrongdoing in the winter’s 4-0 defeat, he said Joe Root’s squad were surprised at how Australia were able to extract prodigious reverse swing when James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who have 928 Test wickets between them, were unable to do likewise.
Malan said: “I think every time the ball starts reversing quickly, no matter which team you’re playing against, you always ask the question.
“Sometimes you get the ball reversing quicker than other times — and if we don’t get it reversing, we always just look [at each other] and go, ‘Oh well, they must be doing something to it’. That’s just natural.”
On the scandal, Malan said: “We, as cricketers, have to be role models for those coming through. What happened was obviously disappointing but, as bad as it’s sounding, it’s up to Australia to sort it out.
“They’ve said their leadership group [only knew]. If that’s the way they did it, that’s the way they did it.”
England are set to drop Moeen Ali and Craig Overton for Friday’s final Test against New Zealand here.
Meanwhile, the hosts have lost leg-spinner Todd Astle to a side strain and are set to include Ish Sodhi.
