On Thursday the Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins defended his previous comments that India skipper Virat Kohli will not score a century during the upcoming Australian summer. During an on-stage interview with a veteran broadcaster Bruce McAvaney, Cummins had said that his brave and bold prediction will be that Kohli will score a hundred and they will knock the Indian team in one go.

However, during an interview to Cricket Australia, Cummins clarified that his words were misunderstood and he was trying to compliment the Indian skipper. He said, “I was surprised by the traction the comments I made about Virat Kohli got. I was trying to pay him a huge compliment and say that my big wish list for the summer as 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.”

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The fast bowler further added, “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 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.”

Talking about the reaction from Indian fans over his statement, the fiery pacer said that fans of Indian cricket and Virat are pretty active on various social media platform, but he doesn’t mind that. 

Cummins even compared Kohli’s passion for cricket with the disgraced Australian cricket, Steve Smith, he said, “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.”

India will play a 3-ODIs, 4 Tests and 3 T20Is against Australia starting from November 21, 2018.