As England and Australia are gearing to face each other in an ODI series, Tim Paine has revealed that he wants to continue with the tradition of pre-match handshakes that he initiated in his first Test as the captain of the Baggie Green against South Africa.

At that time, he did ahead of the fourth Test against the Proteas and suggested that he would like this to be the norm ahead of a series. And now, as the series beckons, Paine has reiterated that while England aren’t obliged to do it, it is something that they would want to bring in cricket ahead of playing a series.

"They don't have to do it, but it's something we want to bring in to start a series."

Paine, who was also appointed the ODI captain following the respective bans on Steve Smith and David Warner, then added that the Aussies might have spoken a lot about improving their values after the sandpaper saga, but words are only words and actions are what really matter.

"We'll be judged solely on our actions going forward," said Paine. "We've spoken about internally about our values as a team and how we want to be perceived by the Australian public and by the cricket public in general. Words are words. Come Wednesday, it's time for us to act on those words and show it by actions."

Meanwhile, England ODI captain Eoin Morgan showed his complete support towards Tim Paine’s initiative, adding that he wants the sport to be highly popular.

"I'm absolutely happy with that. They are trying to turn around the image of the game in their country and we are all for that. We want cricket to be as popular as ever."

This is the first time that Australia are playing a series after the infamous South Africa tour. The English crowd are already rubbing it against them but Eoin Morgan confirmed that England won’t the ball-tampering saga as a means of sledging and expects a tough series for the English players.

 “No. If you look at it in that, it probably could be ammunition. It will be service as usual. We play our cricket pretty hard, positively, aggressively, so we’ll continue to do that.

“I’m expecting a tough series. Every time we’ve played against Australia, the side we’ve come up against has played hard, tough cricket, so we’ll expect that as well.”