England all-rounder urged the fans to keep the banter funny and not personal . © Getty

Moeen Ali, the England all rounder, hoped that the home fans wouldn't needle the pair of Steven Smith and David Warner with personal taunts during the upcoming World Cup and Ashes. The duo is returning to play for Australia after they were banned for one year in the aftermath of the ball tampering incident that took place last year in Cape Town.

"I really hope they don't get too much stick. I want them to enjoy the series," Moeen said to the Guardian. "If you have to, keep it funny, not personal. We all make mistakes. We are human beings and we have feelings. I know deep down they are probably really good people. I just hope they get treated decently. I just want the cricket to be spoken about."

Incidentally, Justin Langer, the head coach, had observed that the duo needs to be monitored to negate any negativity on and off the field.

"There's not too many I've met in my life who like being booed or heckled or disliked so... they're human beings," Langer had said. "We're going to have to care for them, we're going to have to put an arm around them and make sure they're going okay. But what people say, whether it's in the crowd or social media or wherever, there's nothing they can do about that, they can't control it but what we can do is keep an eye on them and make sure they're going okay as people as much as cricketers."

Smith and Warner played in Australia's warm-up games against the New Zealand XI this month. Smith showed good form, notching up scores of 22, 89 not out and 91 not out. Meanwhile, Warner was in terrific touch for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2019, finishing as the top run-scorer of the tournament with 692 runs. On the other hand, Smith aggregated 319 runs at an average of over 39 in the competition.