Cameron Bancroft is being backed to let his "bat do the talking" in the wake of Usman Khawaja's bombshell revelations about the sandpaper ball-tampering scandal from 2018.
Khawaja sent the cricket world into a spin on Saturday when he said the entire Test XI knew about the use of sandpaper to alter the state of the ball on the doomed tour of South Africa.
The comments were in stark contrast to the findings from the official investigation, which determined only David Warner, Steve Smith and Bancroft knew about the plot.
Bancroft, who was caught on camera during the Cape Town Test trying to hide the sandpaper in his pants, received a nine-month suspension, while senior figures Warner and Smith were banned for a year.
Khawaja said he had urged the entire team at the time to take collective responsibility rather than scapegoating Warner, Smith and Bancroft.
"Obviously, it didn’t work that way and those three guys got crucified," Khawaja told Nine Newspapers.
Bancroft played only two more Tests once he served his ban, and recently said he is no longer as feverish to return to the Test arena as he once was.
The 33-year-old put aside the distraction of Khawaja's comments on Saturday to score 32 off 40 balls in Western Australia's 92-run one-day loss to England at the WACA Ground.
After the match, WA coach Beau Casson praised Bancroft's maturity in the face of the ball-tampering scandal being brought up.
"He's a grown man and a very mature guy," Casson said.
"I think he's handled himself with distinction in that space. I don't see it changing anytime soon."
Bancroft wasn't made available to media on Saturday to talk about Khawaja's comments, and it remains to be seen whether he will eventually address the latest revelations.
"The situation was a long time ago," Casson said.
"He's keen to move on and let his bat do the talking, and that's what we promote him to do."
Cricket Australia says it remains comfortable with the past investigation of 'sandpapergate', but left the door open for new information to be considered.
Bancroft will be back in action when WA take on Victoria in a Sheffield Shield match at the MCG, starting on Wednesday.
"We're just rapt to be able to have Cameron scoring runs for us," Casson said.
"Last week was a really good example of that (when he scored 186 in a Shield win against South Australia).
"He leaves nothing to chance. He trains hard, not only technically but physically. If he's not running miles, he's thinking about cricket.
"He's a senior player within this group, and he certainly sets the example of how to go about it to be a professional cricketer."
