PTI

Durban, Mar 12: South African cricketers will not get involved in any verbal spats with their Indian counterparts during their three-match Test series starting in Chennai on March 26.

Coach Mickey Arthur has said his players will be on their guard from the time they arrive in India on March 22.

The Proteas are currently in the final stages of their tour of Bangladesh.

Arthur said the South Africans had always dominated India when they toured the Rainbow Nation in the past, but things were different now.

"I have to admit it's going to be a very tough series," Arthur was quoted as saying by Daily News.

"We have - and I must admit it - walked all over them whenever they came to South Africa and have never seen them retaliate to the abuses we have spat out.

"But now there's a big change. When they came to South Africa in 2006 they were a little different," he said.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was the one Indian player who did not take the verbal volleys lying done, the South African coach said, adding there was no point in employing that strategy.

"One, Harbhajan Singh, was the man who gave it back to us. His spats with Mark Boucher are well known. And he knows how to give it back.

"His behaviour and stance of the team collectively has galvanised the Indians and their supporters, so there's no way we would want to get involved in any of that stuff that we may have done in the past. We will be on their soil and it would be absurd even to think of it," Arthur added.