Outrage over Tim Paine’s captaincy at Headingley shows short memories

Hold your horses, everyone! Australia’s Tim Paine remains on the verge of one of the great captaincy performances despite outrageous calls for his head following the Headingley nightmare.

Tim Paine searches for a solution as England closes in on a famous victory.

One wicket has changed the narrative of the Ashes series.

Two days ago, England were red-ball duffers who couldn’t go a yard and Australia were the geniuses on the verge of Ashes history.

Now the knives are out for Tim Paine, and the Australian captain is under fire for two key blunders made in the face of Ben Stokes’ brilliance.

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England’s Ben Stokes survives a lbw howler in the penultimate over after Tim Paine had wasted a review late on the fourth day.

It wasn’t Paine’s finest day in the job, but to question his credentials as captain over a botched review and the setting of some contentious fields on a day of almost unprecedented pressure borders on ridiculous.

The time will come for post-mortems after this epic series is done and dusted, but right now the outrage is too much.

As it stands, the Ashes is locked at 1-1 and Australia still have an excellent chance of taking home the urn.

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Those going after Paine clearly have short memories.

After the turmoil of the past 12 months, the very fact Australia were in a position to claim the Ashes in England for the first time since 2001 after only three Tests is no small part due to Paine’s leadership.

Does his role as Australian cricket’s statesman during their darkest days suddenly count for nothing?

Have we suddenly forgotten the broken dressing room he has helped reunite?

Things start unravelling on day four at Headingley as Paine (right) considers his options.

Access to Michael Clarke or Ian Chappell’s brain might have helped on the final day in Headingley, but Chappell said that no Australian captain in history would have handled himself as admirably as Paine did after such a crushing defeat.

Paine refused to dump on the umpire when others wouldn’t have been able to resist following the lbw howler in the penultimate over.

If we’ve learnt anything from the ball-tampering culture crisis, surely this is something to savour.

Calls for Steve Smith to replace Paine as captain have started, and they conveniently rewrite history. Not only is Smith ineligible until next year, he was never known for his tactical nous as captain.

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Against Pakistan at the Gabba in December 2016 with Smith at the helm, the visitors amassed an extraordinary 450 runs in the final innings and only fell short of a monumental world record by 39 runs.

Smith was as utterly helpless on that nearly-embarrassing day as Paine was against Stokes.

Some have called for Travis Head as Australian skipper.

He could realistically be dropped before the series is out.

At some point, Paine’s lack of runs might become relevant and who knows how the dust will settle in the months to come.

But right now, he still remains, as he did two days ago, on the verge of one of the greatest ever performances by an Australian captain.

Originally published as Outrage over Tim Paine’s captaincy at Headingley shows short memories