Refuting Michael Clarke’s claim that the Australian cricketers didn’t “sledge” Virat Kohli during 2018-19 tour to protect their IPL deals, Australia limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch said that the country’s players were just trying to find their own game.
Clarke had said that the aura of Kohli has had a huge impact on Australian cricketers as they were scared to “sledge” the Indian captain and “sucked up” to him to protect their IPL deals. He had added that there was a phase in his country’s cricket and in other teams as well where the players believed sledging Kohli or other big Indian players may jeopardise their IPL career.
However, Finch explained that the team was going through a transition period and the young players were trying to dig in their heels on the international stage.
“The team was going through a transition and there were a lot of players trying to find their way in international cricket and doing that against India. Talking as a batsman, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, you can’t hide against that kind of attack,” Finch told Sports Tak as quoted by India Today.
“Michael told we were being nice but people were just trying to find their own game, they were trying best way to play Test cricket. But everyone is entitle to their views, he might have seen something from the outside which we didn’t see from inside,” Finch said.
India won the 2018-19 Test series in Australia 2-1. The feat was unprecedented in the illustrious history of the two teams.