Former English cricketer David Lloyd has slammed Australian skipper Tim Paine for his ill-mannered on-field banter with India's R Ashwin on the final day of the Sydney Test.

The hosts failed to break down Hanuma Vihari (23* off 161 balls) and Ravichandran Ashwin’s (39* off 128 balls) resolve, who batted with great grit and determination, despite both of them carrying injuries, against the lethal Australian attack to draw the Test-match while chasing a mammoth target of 407.

This led to captain Tim Paine constantly chattering behind the stumps to Ashwin, in an attempt of breaking his resolve and concentration.  He also passed some derogatory comments, especially calling the Indian off-spinner a 'd***head'.

Cricketer-turned-commentator, David Lloyd, in his column in The Daily Mail, wrote that if someone had talked to him that way, he would have lost all the respect for them. 

“It’s up to Paine now to control his players, but first he has to set an example. Put it like this: if someone had talked to me like he did to Ravichandran Ashwin, I’d have lost all respect for them,” David Lloyd wrote.

David Lloyd wrote that Paine's act from behind the stumps has left him flabbergasted and computed that Ashwin will be unwilling to behave in a friendly manner off the field with Tim Paine after needless sledging on Day 5 of the Sydney Test. 

“The way he was carrying on behind the stumps left me flabbergasted. I played the game for two decades, and sledging didn’t really exist. People go on about Ian Chappell and his Australia team, but what the likes of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson said to us was just banter.

They never said anything that made me not want to have a beer with them after the game. How can Ashwin want to share a drink with the Australians after Paine was trash-talking him the way he did?” he stated.

Lloyd found it baffling to understand how the Aussies continue to remain arrogant in their behaviour, despite the darkest period in Australian history that saw Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith, and David Warner banned for their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in 2018.

“You’d have thought the Australians would watch their Ps and Qs after that farce with the sandpaper. But they just don’t seem to learn. What on earth is wrong with them?” Lloyd signed off.

Addressing the media after the match Australian captain, Tim Paine, apologized for sledging incident during the Sydney Test. 

(The Daily Mail inputs)