Aussie Captain reveals the real reason why his team ‘sucked up to Virat Kohli’: It’s not about the IPL!

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Recently, Former Australian intentional Michael Clarke bashed the Australian cricketers of today for being too soft to the Indians. The Cricket World Cup winning captain claimed that certain Indian cricketers, like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were not being sledged to secure a good relationship with them, leading to a chance of a high-money contract at the IPL auctions. Current Australian Tim Paine has refused the claim, saying that it is only a ploy to keep Kohli quiet.

“I certainly didn’t notice too many people being that nice to Virat or not trying to get him out or anything like that. I’m not sure who was going easy on him; we certainly had a thing where we didn’t want to provoke any fight with him because we think that’s when he plays at his best,” Paine said to Cricinfo.

“Who knows what will happen in this series and, as we saw in the documentary, there was still quite a lot of heat in some of those games. I certainly wasn’t holding back, but again the IPL’s not a huge draw for me at the moment, so I had nothing to lose. But anytime our guys go out and play a Test match for Australia, they’ll be giving their absolute all and I’m pretty sure they’re not thinking about an IPL contract when they’re running in, bowling to Virat,” Paine added.

While Clarke is vocal against Team Australia trying to improve their image, stating that matches aren’t won by good manners, Tim Paine belives that verbal war won’t be of any help to win a Test Match, and one needs the skill and confidence with bat and ball to actually increase the chances.

“What you say on the field is irrelevant 99 per cent of the time. Sometimes you can get a little inside someone’s head or something like that, but if you’re not batting well and not bowling well, all the talk in the world doesn’t mean anything,” Paine said.

Paine also believes that strategy needs to change depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent.

“There’s no doubt our first focus is on executing our skill and being as good as we can possibly be in that area and then sometimes things happen on a cricket field and you’ve got to go in, you’ve got to change your tack, or you’ve got to have a few words. As we’ve seen the last 12 or 18 months, we still do that, we still stick up for each other, we still fight as hard as any Australian team, but we’ve probably just had to move with the times and I’ve been really proud of the way we’ve played our cricket,” he explained.

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