Swashbuckling Australian batsman Glenn Maxwell on Friday dismissed reports that he had criticised Virat Kohli, saying it was "completely untrue" and the Australian team was actually "in awe" of the India Test captain.
"Taken out of context... I also complimented him (Kohli) on how well he had played and got his team into a winning position," Maxwell wrote on his twitter handle on Friday.
Maxwell, who had hit 96 and 41 in the 3rd and 4th ODIs to help Australia clinch the series 4-0, also spoke to Cricket Australia to clarify his comments about Kohli.
"I was asked to give a bit of an assessment of who was dominating with the bat in this series, and I said 'I don't think anyone in the world is hitting the ball better than Virat at the moment'," Maxwell said.
Further clarifying his comments, the 27-year-old Maxwell said: "The point that I was making, and it related more to when India were setting totals and had plenty of wickets in hand, is that the scoring rate seemed to slow as milestones got close, which can sometimes be the case, especially when teams are batting first.
"Maintaining a constant scoring rate can be less straightforward batting first than when you're chasing and you know what required rate has to be, and there have been times when batters just seem to have slowed a bit to make sure they reach those milestones."
"Sometimes that wins you games, and sometimes it doesn't but that was only point I was trying to make. I've got a really good relation with Virat off the field and I've already had a chat with him," Maxwell added.