England captain Joe Root has fired back in response to Nathan Lyon, grasping for the moral high ground while calling the pre-Ashes niggle irrelevant and suggesting the Australian has placed undue pressure on himself.
Lyon ignited a war of words with Matt Prior when he claimed the former England wicketkeeper wanted to leave Australia mid-series four years ago because he was scared of Mitchell Johnson.
Lyon also outlined Australia's desire to end careers and attempted to turn up the heat on Root, highlighting the fact he was dropped in 2013-14 amid Australia's march towards a 5-0 series win.
"That's not how I'd want my players to go about things," Root said, later naming his XI and confirming Jake Ball was in.
Veteran paceman Jimmy Anderson suggested his squad has shared a good laugh about Lyon's barbs.
"I wonder whether he's lost a bet or something, to come out with the stuff that he's been coming out with," noted stirrer Anderson told the BBC.
Root also poured sardonic scorn on Lyon.
"I played club cricket with him in Prospect (South Australia) and, at the time, we weren't sure who was the first spinner," Root quipped, jokingly comparing his part-timers to the offbreaks delivered by Australia's second-most prolific Test spinner.
"He has obviously come a long way since then."
Root added the pre-series verbals of Lyon, usually far less forthright in his dealings with the media, were a bit bizarre.
"Whether it's maybe a team strategy or he's just taken it upon himself to do that - who knows? The more guys talk going into a series, the more they put pressure on themselves," he said.
"You hear a lot about these scars but it's a series which happened four years ago ... it's completely irrelevant.
"We've won four of the last five Ashes. We've got a lot of guys who were part of that (2015) squad and have very fond memories."
Lyon's comments have been widely panned in England.
Prior seethingly declared Lyon had embarrassed himself with a "completely ridiculous and ... wholeheartedly untrue" allegation, while former England skipper Michael Vaughan described Lyon's words as pathetic.
Steve Smith couldn't understand what the fuss was about.
"It's all part of pre-Ashes banter really, that's been a round for years," skipper Smith said.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting shared Smith's view.
"Someone's put him (Lyon) up to it ... if it's coming from Starcy (Mitchell Starc) or Pat Cummins then it probably would have been OK," Ponting said.
"And, look, it's still OK. This happens every Ashes series. It's nothing new.
"It could have even been a deliberate thing to throw it out and see what sort of reaction."
Root indicated he was unlikely to target Australia with verbals in the five-Test series.
"I'll leave the talking to others," the gifted batsman said.
