Australian vice-captain, Pat Cummins, came out responding to the criticism made by former captain Michael Clarke regarding the players being scared of sledging Virat Kohli and Co.
The world cup winning captain of Australia cited out the players’ intention to bag lucrative IPL contracts as the primary reason for being scared of verbal duels with the Indian captain.
Earlier, coach Justin Langer revealed that Australian were planning not to flare Kohli up and repeat facing the wrath of his blade, similar to the 2014 tour, despite him getting under their skin.
On the contrary, Clarke backed the Australian culture of playing the sport in a hard way, involving ruthless sledging. Further, Clarke made bold claims about the Australian team sucking up to Kohli and Co., during India’s tour of Australia in 2018-19.
“I think probably a bigger factor was six months before leading into that Indian series the media and everyone commentating on the Aussie cricket team were pretty clear in their direction in the way they wanted the Aussies team to go. That was playing a little bit less aggressively out on the field,” Cummins told BBC.
“I’d say that would have been a bigger factor than trying to win or lose friends out on the cricket field. But you never know, that might have been a factor for some players,” added Cummins.
The pacer conceded to the Australian team being less aggressive in the series in order to win back their fans.
India went on to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time on Australian soil, by a margin of 2-1. Australia fielded one of the weakest sides ever to face India in the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner.
Cummins was repurchased by his former Kolkata Knight Riders franchise in the auctions last year for a whopping price of INR 15.5 crores.
