Prior to departing for Australia, team India captain Virat Kohli insisted he doesn’t need to get into an altercation on the field to get pumped up and has belief in his abilities to score runs without getting riled up. However, Australian pacer Pat Cummins is not completely convinced by the Indian skipper’s comments and said that he would be surprised if Kohli doesn’t get into verbal battles in Australia.
“I think I heard him say in the media the other day he won’t, but I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t,” Cummins told Fairfax Media. “He’s so competitive, he really thrives on that.
“We’ll hold our ground, we’re going to be competitive and all those things. We wouldn’t treat him differently to any others. I think you’ll see a lot of passion from both sides but nothing super fiery like we saw against India a couple of years ago,” he added.
Relations between the two sides hit a low after Australian captain Steve Smith, going against the rule, looked up to his dressing room for assistance for a decision review call during the second Test in Bengaluru last year. Smith later called it his “brain fade” moment
“It might be something to talk about once we get the Test squad together, and talk about how we want to play and our plans for individual batsmen,” Cummins said.
“To be honest, I do what works best for me. It’s getting myself fired up or getting myself focused, it’s more getting the best out of myself than trying to put a batsman off or anything.” India will play Australia four Tests, three One-day Internationals and as many T20 Internationals with the first match of the three-T20I series slated for November 21 at The Gabba in Brisbane.
