Australia skipper Steve Smith and Aaron Finch today said that they did not agree with teammate Glenn Maxwell’s comments on the Indian batsmen being "milestone-driven", and that it was his personal opinion. Allrounder Maxwell had criticised the Indian batsmen of being more concerned about their personal achievements than the team’s interest.
“The talk of Indian players being selfish was obviously Glenn’s view; that’s not my personal view,” Finch told reporters.
“Virat Kohli got a 100 off 80-odd balls the other day — there was nothing selfish about that innings. That was an extraordinary, extraordinary innings. Shikhar Dhawan got it off about 95 balls, I think. He took the game on at the start for India along with Rohit (Sharma) and got them off to an absolute flyer. Gee! There are some seriously good players in India. Virat — 25 ODI hundreds now. That’s an unbelievable achievement,” he added.
Slowing down before milestone natural for anyone: Smith
Smith, meanwhile, said it was only natural for a batsman to slow down when he is approaching a milestone. “I think that can be natural for anyone around the world. When you see that sort of milestone coming, in the back of your mind you might slow down a little bit. I think Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are quality players and they’re batting beautifully and I don’t see any problem with any selfishness there,” said Smith.
After his match-winning knock of 96 runs in the third ODI, Maxwell had stated that the Indian batsmen were playing for personal landmarks. “They were, probably, just making sure they got to a milestone. Some people are milestone-driven, some people aren’t,” Maxwell had said.
The allrounder also cited the example of Kohli, saying, “I think, if you look back at it. I was sent a photo the other day. It said — Virat was 84 off 63 (factually, he was 84 off 61), and then 100 off 89 (100 off 84) or something like that. He got his last 11 runs off 22 (21) balls to get his hundred.”
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