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XtraTime Web Desk: Australian Test captain Michael Clarke on Thursday hit back at Michael Clarke for his claims that his team had "sucked up" to Kohli in order to land fat deals with IPL franchises. Paine in an interview to ESPNcricinfo said he was not sure who was going easy on Kohli to protect IPL contracts. The Australian captain has made it ckear his team didn''t want to unnecessarily provoke Virat Kohli. According to Paine, it was 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 is scheduled to tour Australia from October, 2020 to January, 2021 to play four Tests, three One Day Internationals and three Twenty20 International matches. "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." Paine went on to add that verbal wars won''t win matches unless one puts up the effort on the field. "What you say on the field is irrelevant 99% of the time," Paine said. "Sometimes you can get a little inside someone''s head or something like that, but if you''re not batting well and not bowling well, all the talk in the world doesn''t mean anything," said Paine.