Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins does not believe India skipper Virat Kohli will manage to avoid verbal battles during the Indians’ tour Down Under.
Before leaving for the full tour of Australia, Kohli had stated that he was not looking to get into confrontations.
However, Cummins said he would be surprised if Kohli managed to stay quiet.
“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,” the pacer added.
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis had earlier said his team chose not to engage with Kohli at the start of the year and the India skipper was restricted to one century in six innings. It’s a possible strategy for the Aussies.
“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.”
