As Team India departed for the much-anticipated tour of Australia last week, skipper Virat Kohli had asserted that he would want a sledge-free summer in Down Under before adding that if the Aussies initiate the altercation, the visitors will reciprocate in the same way.

However, Kohli’s ‘sledge-free’ tour remark is not being digested by the Australian cricket fraternity as speedster Pat Cummins on Sunday said he would be surprised if the Indian captain remains quiet.

“I think I heard him say in the media the other day he won’t, but I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t,” Cummins told Fairfax Media.

“He’s so competitive, he really thrives on that. We’ll hold our ground, we’re going to be competitive and all those things. We wouldn’t treat him differently to any others. I think you’ll see a lot of passion from both sides but nothing super fiery like we saw against India a couple of years ago,” he added.

Kohli has taken his batting feats to a different level altogether in 2018. Despite playing the majority of Test matches outside Asia, Virat is averaging 59.05 in red-ball cricket with over 1000 runs this year, while his ODI average read 133.55 in 14 matches in this calendar year.

When asked about their plans to tackle the mighty Indian captain, Cummins said: “It might be something to talk about once we get the Test squad together, and talk about how we want to play and our plans for individual batsmen.”

“To be honest, I do what works best for me. It’s getting myself fired up or getting myself focused, it’s more getting the best out of myself than trying to put a batsman off or anything,” he concluded.

The much-awaited India’s tour of Australia will kick-start with a Twenty20 series on November 21 in Brisbane while the Test series will be played from December 6 to January 7.