Steve Smith has hit back at Jimmy Anderson’s suggestion that Australia are acting like bullies in their Ashes sledging campaign, claiming the England seamer is “one of the biggest sledgers in the game”. Smith was also keen to clarify to the England captain, Joe Root, that there was no intent to mock the tourists as he and Cameron Bancroft laughed their way through their victory press conference after the first Test at the Gabba.

On the eve of the second Test, an inaugural day-night Ashes match at the Adelaide Oval, the Australia captain found himself accounting for his team’s line of verbal attack on the pitch against Jonny Bairstow. He was also asked to respond to Anderson’s observations and said: “I think it’s interesting coming from Jimmy, calling us bullies and big sledgers. I think he’s one of the biggest sledgers in the game, to me in particular. I remember back in 2010, when I first started and wasn’t any good, he was pretty happy to get stuck into me then.”

As for Australia’s tactics in their victory, Smith insisted – to the best of his knowledge – that nothing said to Bairstow was beyond the pale. The thrust of what has reached the public domain is collective ridiculing of the England wicketkeeper over the unusual but benign head-butt gesture with which he introduced himself to the Australia opener Bancroft on first meeting him in a Perth bar in October.

Smith said: “I think everything was fine. I thought we played the game in good spirit. There’s a line there that we’re not to cross. It’s about playing good, hard, aggressive cricket [and] I think we did that well at the Gabba and no doubt we’ll continue to do that throughout the series.”

He insisted that, as he and the Brisbane debutant Bancroft revelled in the latter’s recollections about Bairstow’s introductory gesture, it was not an exercise in humour directly at England’s expense. “I certainly wasn’t mocking [Root’s] team,” Smith said. “I’m happy to clarify with him, no problem there at all.”

He told a press conference it was simply Bancroft’s deadpan demeanour that tickled him. “I was laughing at Cameron and the way he delivered the events of what had happened,” he said. “I don’t know Cameron that well yet; I haven’t played a lot with him. He was very dry and different in the way things came across. You guys got a good laugh out of it, as much as I did.”

Earlier, Root had chosen his words more carefully than Anderson when asked whether Australia overstepped the mark when Bairstow was at the crease. “You’d have to ask him. In his case I’d like to think they know when to stop and when too far is too far. If they have gone too far then it says more about them than it does about anything else”.

Australia expect to field an unchanged team as they bid to go 2-0 up with three to play. England have named a squad of 12, adding Craig Overton to the XI picked in Brisbane with a decision to be made at the toss in Adelaide on the final lineup.