Tim Paine: The remarkable rise of Australia’s Test captain
Tim Paine’s rise from nowhere man to leader of men has been extraordinary. And his poise has reassured Australian cricket there can be light at the end of the darkest tunnel.
Who said the Tasmanian tiger was extinct?
From the cricketing wilderness, an out-of-luck wicketkeeper on the verge of giving the game away has become Test captain of Australia.
Tim Paine’s rise from nowhere man to leader of men is simply one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of the sport.
Australia have traditionally baulked at making keepers Test captains, but confronted with the biggest crisis they’ve ever known, Paine was appointed without hesitation.
This summer may well end in tears for Australia at the SCG this week as India closes in on a series triumph, but the pain won’t be for nothing.
Since he faced up against men in Hobart grade cricket when he was barely a teen, Paine’s baby-face has always belied a tough exterior out of the Ricky Ponting mould.
His remarkable poise has reassured Australian cricket there can be light at the end of the darkest tunnel.
“The most important thing I’ve learnt is to be myself. That’s the No.1,” Paine said.
“Then the second thing, particularly over the past month or so has been to try and stay really present. Stay in the moment of where we are right now.”
However, if it wasn’t for perhaps the most inspired selection of the modern era — plucking Paine from outside the Tasmanian state team last summer — the here and now would likely have been that Paine was in retirement.
Following seven desperate operations to repair a badly broken finger suffered in an exhibition game in 2010, Paine was resigned to never adding to the four Test matches he played that same year.
But behind the scenes as Australia prepared for an all-important Ashes quietly fretting over who would wear the gloves against England, Matthew Wade, Alex Carey or Peter Nevill, the name Tim Paine was first put forward by Brad Haddin.
The Australian assistant coach and a man with an astute feel for the game, once considered Paine the most likely gloveman to take his place behind the stumps when he was in the middle of his Test career.
Since those days, the trauma of injury had almost forced Paine to quit the game and a decision had been made on the Apple Isle that Matthew Wade would replace him as Tasmanian keeper.
But in Haddin’s mind, the same skill, character and presence he saw in Paine seven years earlier had not dimmed, even if the system had shunned him to the outer.
He believed Paine was the man Australia needed.
National selector Mark Waugh was another loud voice behind the scenes.
Waugh backed in Haddin’s judgment and initially pushed for his selection in the Twenty20 unit as a stepping stone to Ashes consideration.
The rest is history.
From outside the Tasmanian Sheffield Shield side, Paine was brought back from the dead to keep against England.
In an instant it felt a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle had been restored and then six months’ later in Cape Town, when Australian cricket collapsed, Paine was the only pillar left standing.
Paine has admitted to driving his car around Hobart over the past 12 months’ and still getting shocked when the newsreader would give the latest on Australia’s Test captain.
But with the eye of the Tiger, Paine has mapped out in his mind what it will take to rebuild Australian cricket.
“Try not to be too distracted by what’s ahead of us, or who is coming back and who is not,” he said. “(I’ve tried) to keep a little bit of reality around our group. Keep our feet where they are and keep trying to improve.
“That’s been my focus and that’s what I’ve spoken to the group a lot about.”
LIKELY TEAMS FOR SYDNEY TEST
Australia: Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Tim Paine, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
India: Lokesh Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Ravi Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav/Kuldeep Yadav
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