Pat Cummins has disagreed with Michael Clarke on the statement of Australian players being soft to Virat Kohli for saving their IPL contracts. Former Australian captain’s statement has created a commotion in Australian cricket.

In his bold statement, Michael Clarke said that the Australian cricketers feared to sledge Virat Kohli-led Indian team in the 2018-19 Test series. Notably, India went on to win the Test series for the first time in Australia by 2-1.

Pat Cummins responds to Michael Clarke:

According to Clarke, Australian players wanted to save their IPL contracts so they went soft on the Indian captain. Cummins said that his teammates were less aggressive because they were all-time under scanner after the ball-tampering incident. However, Australia’s vice-captain didn’t completely disagree with Clarke.

“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 and that was playing a little bit less aggressively out on the field,” Cummins told the 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.”

India won the series in the absence of Australia’s two major cricketers Steve Smith and David Warner. Both the players were banned because of ball-tampering case.

Earlier, Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine said in a statement that they didn’t want to provoke Kohli because it was a part of the strategy. According to Paine, they knew Virat plays his best when he is aggressive. So, he disagreed with Clarke’s remark.