AUS vs IND | Chose to not pick fights with Virat Kohli to keep him quiet, reveals Tim Paine
Tim Paine has refuted Michael Clarke’s comments on the Australian cricket team going easy on Kohli in order to secure IPL contracts. The Australian skipper added that he did not want to provoke Kohli as he believed that it would motivate the Indian skipper and end up backfiring for Australia.
Australian skipper Tim Paine hit back at Clarke’s comments on the Aussie players going easy on Indian skipper Virat Kohli. Paine not only rejected the former Australian skipper’s claim but also went on to add that they did have a few words with Kohli during the series.
Clarke, earlier, claimed that Paine and co went easy on Kohli for an IPL contract. In the Amazon documentary, ‘The Test,’ the 35-year-old is seen discussing with the Australian coach Justin Langer that the team does not want to provoke any fight with Kohli.
"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 told ESPNCricinfo.
Paine also batted for his teammates and stated that they would always play for the country and not for a million-dollar IPL contract. He added that verbal wars would not always result in the opposition giving up. The Tasmanian further revealed that there was no point in taking a risk from his end by infuriating the Indian skipper, especially with the series on the line.
"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," Paine concluded.