'Wishful Thinking, Not A Challenge', Pat Cummins Clarifies Comment On Virat Kohli

Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins said last week that India captain Virat Kohli would not be able to score a century when the two teams lock horns in a two-month-long series starting on November 21 in Brisbane. However, Cummins cleared the air about his comment, which got a lot of media attention, saying that he was actually complimenting the 29-year-old Indian. "My brave, bold prediction; I'd say I think Virat Kohli is not going to get a hundred and we're going to knock them off over here," Cummins had said. It seemed that the Australian was laying down a challenge to Kohli, but he says the remark was more wishful thinking than him targeting the Indian skipper.

"I was surprised by the traction the comments I made about Virat got," Cummins told cricket.com.au.

"I was almost trying to do the opposite to the way they were perceived. I was trying to pay him a huge compliment and say that my big wish list for the summer was he doesn't score a hundred.

"He's obviously so important to the team and is such a gun batsman, so him not scoring runs would go a long way to helping us win. But I certainly didn't mean to say he's no good because I couldn't hold him in higher regard.

"Bruce McAvaney just asked me what my big prediction was that I'd like to see for the summer. And I just basically said 'I'd love to see Virat Kohli not make a hundred because he's a really good player'.

"The chances are he's going to score a hundred against us again sometime and we'll be doing everything in our power to try and stop that.

"It was just off the cuff. It was a pretty relaxed interview to say I'd love for him not to score runs, like I'd love any international player to not score runs against us."

Cummins added that he was shocked by the media storm his comments created.

"Obviously you always get a lot of Virat Kohli and Indian cricket team fans on Twitter having their say, but it's all good," he said.

"Virat's a really passionate player and I'm sure he doesn't need any extra motivation to go out there and put everything into what he does," he said.

"I think we'll leave that be ... I don't think we'll be calling out anyone this summer. We'll just hopefully take plenty of wickets and the other team will hopefully not score many runs," Cummins added.

"He's similar to Steve Smith for us, he really gets himself into the contest and tries to find a way to fire up the bowlers. They seem to use that as a way to get the best out of themselves and I think that feeds off into the other players in the team as well.

"The captain and the best batsman is always the prized wicket and I'm sure it won't be any different this summer," Cummins said.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Virat Kohli Pat Cummins Cricket