I complimented Kohli, never attacked him: Glenn Maxwell

The Australian, who scored a match-winning 96 in the third ODI at the MCG on last Sunday, was quoted as saying the Indian batsmen as 'milestone-driven' after his innings at Melbourne.

"They were probably just making sure they got to a milestone. Some people are milestone-driven, some people aren't. If it means that much to you, you go for it. But it's not something that drives me too much. Each to their own," Maxwell had said in Melbourne, according to a report in Wisden India.

After the fourth ODI at Canberra, the batsman was again quoted as criticising the Indian star, this time taking a direct aim at Virat Kohli.

"I knew it [the comment] was going to blow up. It didn't really bother me. I was sent a photo the other day, it said Virat was 84 off 63, and then 100 off 89 or something like that. He got his last 11 runs off 22 balls to get his hundred. I thought about that and I was like, 'Jeez, he did it so easily all the way up until then, and then you just lose a bit of momentum.' I have been thinking about that.

"Then you look on the other hand when you watch David Warner get into the 90s and he tries to hit Ishant Sharma for a slog sweep for six. It's just, to me, that's two completely different ends of the spectrum. And then you look at the scoreline and you see 4-0. And to me, I'd much rather be 4-0 basically," Maxwell had told Wisden India.

With controversy erupting after Maxwell’s comments, the batsman took to the social networking platform Twitter to clarify his comments.

He also gave an interview to the official website of the Cricket Australia to settle the debate surrounding his comments and praised Kohli off his performance in the series.

"I was asked to give a bit of an assessment of who was dominating with the bat in this series, and I said, 'I don't think anyone in the world is hitting the ball better than Virat at the moment,'," Maxwell told cricket.com.au.

"The point that I was making, and it related more to when India was setting totals and had plenty of wickets in hand, is that the scoring rate seemed to slow as milestones got close, which can sometimes be the case, especially when teams are batting first,” he added.

Australian captain Steven Smith and Aaron Finch also dismissed the controversy surrounding ‘centuries and Indian batsman’ by saying it as Maxwell’s personal view.

"The talk of Indian players being selfish was obviously Glenn's view; that's not my personal view," Finch said, reported PTI.

(Read: India vs Australia – Fifth ODI: World Champions prepare for 5-0 whitewash against India at SCG)