Pat Cummins handles the pressure of the cricket spotlight better than most, but the Aussie quick still thinks about one occasion when he ran afoul of global fans in 2018.
Speaking to The Grade Cricketer podcast this week, Cummins opened old wounds up by addressing comments he made about Indian captain Virat Kohli.
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In the interview, Cummins, who is currently playing in the Indian Premier League, didn’t have to think too hard when asked whether the Indian or Australian media are more confronting for the modern cricketer.
“Indian media,” the 27-year-old paceman said.
“If you live on social media at all, you get absolutely hounded. Say anything bad about Virat Kohli and look out for the next … years.”
In the lead-up to India’s 2018/19 tour of Australia, Cummins learned that lesson the hard way, as he recounted this week.
“I think Virat Kohli’s not going to get a hundred and we’re going to knock ‘em off over here,” Cummins said at the time.
The bowler’s comments sent Indian cricketing fans into a frenzy back in 2018, with many accusing him of taking a swipe at Kohli’s batting ability.
“I thought it was a bit of a compliment, being like, ‘He’s a great player, hope he doesn’t score a 100 because he’s a gun player’,” Cummins said this week.
The Indian fans and media didn’t see it that way, he recalls.
Kohli did end up a century — though only one — in the Indian tour of Australia about five months later. Fittingly, it was Cummins who dismissed the master batsman on 123 runs in the series’ second Test.
“My phone just blew up. (The Indian media) have got a long memory,” he said with a laugh.
While he’s definitely still in the bad books for some Indian supporters, Cummins was quick to heap praise on the local fans he’s encountered during his current spell in the IPL.
“They just want to see good cricket so it is quite refreshing. It’s totally different to anywhere else in the world,” he said.