After Tim Paine, Pat Cummins responds to Michael Clarke's claim on Aussies 'sucking up' to Virat Kohli

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Michael Clarke comments on Australian team sucking-up to Virat Kohli to save IPL contracts has created a spark in the cricketing world. After Test captain Tim Paine, his deputy Pat Cummins has also responded to Clarke claim.

Cummins explained that the Aussie team were trying to play less aggressive cricket after the ball-tampering scandal. After David Warner and Steve Smith, the Australian team were facing media scrutiny and were portrayed in a negative way.

"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" said Cummins.

Earlier, Paine rubbished Clarke's claims that his team had "sucked up" to Kohli in order to land fat deals with IPL franchises, calling it a tactical decision not to engage Kohli into verbal duel during the 2018-19 series but there was no other motivation.

"I certainly didn't notice too many people being that nice to Virat or not trying to get him out or anything like that," Paine told ESPNcricinfo.

"I thought everyone who had the ball in their hand or when we were batting were trying their absolute best to win the game for Australia. I'm not sure who was going easy on him; we certainly had a thing where we didn't want to provoke any fight with him because we think that's when he plays at his best," Paine said.

India are scheduled to tour Australia from October, 2020 to January, 2021 to play four Tests, three One Day Internationals and three Twenty20 International matches.