The Australian cricket team avoids any kind of fight with India captain Virat Kohli, shared Test skipper Tim Paine but he also said that it's a strategy to keep him quiet, as claimed by Michael Clarke.

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

"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," he further 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 during which the ICC T20 World Cup is scheduled to take place as well.

"Who knows what will happen this series and, as we saw in the documentary, there was still quite a lot of heat in some of those games. I certainly wasn't holding back, but again the IPL's not a huge draw for me at the moment, so I had nothing to lose," Paine said.

He again said, "But anytime our guys go out and play a Test match for Australia, they'll be giving their absolute all and I'm pretty sure they're not thinking about an IPL contract when they're running in, bowling to Virat."

In November 2018, Clarke had bashed out to improve his side’s image due to the infamous ball-tampering scandal, saying the national team "won't win a game" by "worrying about being liked".

Tim Paine, however, said that verbal fight can never win a game if you are not batting or bowling well. Sledging can slow down a good game but can’t win games. He again said that strategy should be made while keeping the opposition's strengths in mind

"As we've seen the last 12 or 18 months, we still do that, we still stick up for each other, we still fight as hard as any Australian team, but we've probably just had to move with the times and I've been really proud of the way we've played out cricket," he explained.

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