Australia v India: Brisbane Test match a huge moment in Tim Paine’s captaincy future
At 36-years-old, every Test match counts for Aussie skipper Tim Paine – and none more so than the fourth Border-Gavaskar instalment at the Gabba.
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Tim Paine has drawn praise for admitting “I was a fool”, and is now focused on nailing a crucial step in his bid to captain Australia in their Ashes defence.
In a dramatic press conference on Tuesday morning, Paine laid himself bare and apologised unreservedly for his behaviour throughout the Sydney Test which, for the first time since Cape Town in 2018, opened his team up to criticism about ‘ugly Aussies.’
Paine’s legacy as an Australian captain will be how he reset the team’s attitude after Sandpapergate and set new standards for on-field conduct.
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The Tasmanian was distressed at how he failed in his leadership at the SCG and conceded his mood was “off” for the entire Test match and impacted on his team’s performance.
All the pressure is on Australia heading into the dramatic decider at the Gabba, given they face the ignominy of losing a second straight Border-Gavaskar series on home soil to a patched-up Indian side that has no Virat Kohli and so many injuries they are almost struggling to field an XI.
In that sense, Brisbane is an enormous Test for Paine.
The 36-year-old will get another contract and will lead Australia to South Africa next month (if the tour goes ahead), but at this stage of his career, every series counts.
Allan Border and Steve Waugh both captained until they were 38, and Paine believes he is capable of similar longevity as a wicketkeeper and a leader.
On Tuesday, he showed the human side that has made him relatable to the Australian public and once again demonstrated he stands for something as a leader.
But so much goes on the line at the Gabba for an Australian side desperate for victory.
“I’m bitterly disappointed with the way I went about it. I felt my mood throughout the whole Test match was probably a little bit off. The way I spoke to the umpires early on day two was also unacceptable,” said Paine.
“I’ve got to cop that on the chin. It’s not the way I want to lead this Australian team. It’s certainly not a reflection of how I want to do it going forward.
“I always talk to our players about playing this game on skill and not on emotion and yesterday I fell short of my own standards and expectations.
“I’m bitterly disappointed with that. But at the same time I did a bit of self-reflection and being able to learn from it and being able to move on to the Gabba Test was really important for me.
“I wanted to address that (Tuesday) morning and apologise to our fans and people who heard some of the things I said yesterday.
“It wasn’t good enough and particularly from the leader of this team. I have to cop what’s coming on the chin and really looking forward to getting to Brisbane, bouncing back and playing the game more like Tim Paine plays the game.
“Yesterday was a poor reflection of that and not something that I want to be known for.”
Paine refused to blame India’s time-wasting tactics, stump mics, bizarre ICC rules that allowed match-saver Rishabh Pant to sub in and out of the game as he pleased after suffering a blow to his elbow, or the strains of playing the summer in a bubble.
Australian coach Justin Langer, who prophesied last year it would only take one indiscretion for Australia to lose ground on the standards they’ve put in place, agreed with Paine’s own self-admission that he’d had a poor match as captain.
Coach and captain are looking for a more relaxed Paine in Brisbane.
“He was in agreeance. I raised it with him and said – look, there’s little things. I’m normally a pretty relaxed person in the changerooms and even when we were batting in this Test, I was on edge,” said Paine.
“I was wandering around the change rooms. I couldn’t sit still, couldn’t watch and I think that added to the tension in our changerooms and I pride myself on – if anything, taking the tension out of our changeroom: Not adding to it.
“I sat down last night, got on that team bus and was bitterly disappointed with the way I held myself in this Test match and I wanted to let our staff know that is what I was feeling, and that’s what I wanted to speak to our players about.”
FINE MESS FOR PAINE AS SMITH SANCTION AWAITS
— Joe Barton
Tim Paine dropped the Test, copped the fine and lost his bundle in an embarrassing day for the captain as the ugly side of Australian cricket resurfaced.
Former Australian skipper Steve Smith was also facing criticism for mischievously marking a different guard on the crease line of the pitch for Rishabh Pant at a drinks break, with ex-England captain Michael Vaughan slamming it as “very, very poor!”
Paine admitted he needs to “set a better example” after, for the second time this Test, he was captured in a foul-mouthed exchange that was broadcast worldwide as he engaged in some “pointed” sledging of stoic Indian tailender Ravi Ashwin in the extraordinary draw.
But, on a day where he copped a fine of 15 per cent of his match fee for asking umpire Paul Wilson for some “f***ing consistency” over DRS decisions, Paine would likely be most frustrated by his hat-trick of dropped catches which cost Australia any chance of victory.
For the first time since the Sandpapergate scandal rocked Australian sport, the Test team has been thrust into the spotlight for nasty on-field antics – with Paine telling Ashwin “at least my teammates like me, dickhead” in an exchange that was broadcast to the public.
The sledging comes amid heightened tensions at the SCG, with the backdrop of two days in which India’s players have been subjected to abuse – some racial in nature.
Paine downplayed the incident, suggesting Ashwin was guilty time-wasting as India pressed for a draw – and that there was “no harm done”.
But he accepted he “set a poor example” during his DRS debate with umpire Wilson, and had no problem with on-field interactions being broadcast to the public.
“It’s great to bring the viewers that close and to be able to hear it. Unfortunately I set a pretty poor example just with my use of language,” Paine said.
“I’m certainly disappointed with myself after I heard that.
“I certainly didn’t mean to be disrespectful to (umpire Paul Wilson) or anything like that it was just an audible obscenity I’ve been done for. I need to be better than that.
“I know stump mics are on, I know that’s part of the game and there’s lots of kids watching the Australian Test team and I need to set a better example than that.”
Smith’s deliberately scraping a new groove in the pitch with his foot could result in a level one or two ICC sanction, and the attempt – cheeky or otherwise – to trick Pant forced the Indian star to retake his stump guard.
The incident was laughed off by Indian skipper Ajinkya Rahane, but it is Smith’s first moment of controversy since his ball tampering ban.
Speaking on Fox Cricket, former Test spinner Kerry O’Keeffe said Paine’s comments to Ashwin went beyond what could be regarded as ‘banter’ that is generally accepted on the field.
“As we heard there’s a lot of stuff happening between Ashwin and Paine. And it’s not banter, it’s pointed,” O’Keeffe said.
If the intention was to rattle Ashwin, it had the opposite effect.
Shortly after Paine, for the third time in the day, grassed a chance that would’ve opened up the vulnerable Indian tail.
Mitchell Starc managed to get an outside edge off Hanuma Vihari with nine overs left in the day but Paine, diving low and to his right, spilt the catch – having shelled two chances off Rishabh Pant in the opening session.
WATCH PAINE VS ASHWIN IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
All three were relatively tough chances, but for a keeper of Paine’s standard they are ones the captain would expect to snatch up.
“I’m bitterly disappointed. I pride myself on my wicketkeeping. I haven’t had too many worse days,” Paine said.
“It’s a horrible feeling, knowing that our fast bowlers and our spinner bowled their hearts out and gave everything to the team.
“I certainly feel I let them down. I’ve got to wear that. But I’m a big boy and I get another crack at it next week.”
Paine’s R-rated DRS spray
Australia’s ongoing DRS war has landed Tim Paine in hot water over an audible on-field obscenity directed at umpire Paul Wilson, which has the potential to rub the skipper out of the fourth and final Test of the India series.
Paine raged after Cheteshwar Pujara escaped another touch-and-go review for a bat pad catch off Nathan Lyon, which was given not out by Wilson early on day three at the SCG.
And it wasn’t just Paine who was frustrated, with recalled opener David Warner (13) visibly upset at having been adjudged out lbw late in the day.
Warner, playing his first Test of the summer after recovering sufficiently from a groin injury, cut a frustrated figure as he trudged past Wilson back to the team dressing room having failed in his bid to overturn the call – with DRS returning another ‘umpire’s call’ ruling to uphold the on-field call by Paul Reiffel.
But it added to the list of gripes in an Australian team that feels it has fallen on the wrong side of the DRS calls this summer.
Replays, including Hotspot, revealed little to indicate an edge from Pujara’s bat – but Paine felt Snicko showed a little bump as the ball passed the bat that warranted further inspection.
TV umpire Bruce Oxenford, however, backed the on-field call and Pujara went on to post a half-century.
The contentious call didn’t sit well with Paine, who was himself the victim of a DRS dismissal in the Boxing Day Test when initially given not out – a decision which was overturned on the back of a minimal spike on Snicko and little other evidence.
“F***ing consistency Blocker (Wilson), there’s a thing (spike) as (the ball) goes past (the bat),” Paine said to umpire Wilson.
Speaking after the day’s play, Australia’s Pat Cummins shed some light on his captain’s grievances.
“It’s tough – (DRS) still brings in human error, human subjectivity doesn’t it?” said Cummins.
“I think with RTS (real-time snickometer) it’s (Paine’s) frustrations that you just see constant kind of wavering and it comes up to different people to determine whether a spike is big enough or muffled.”
There is precedent for on-field outbursts being caught by stump mics earning sanctions from the International Cricket Council and Cricket Australia.
Then-Australian captain Michael Clarke was reprimanded for famous “get ready for a broken f**ken arm” sledge of England’s Jimmy Anderson during the 2013-14 Ashes.
Clarke was charged by the ICC and fined 20 per cent of his match fee.
More recently, Melbourne Stars’ Adam Zampa was banned for a Big Bash match after a stump mic picked up an ‘audible obscenity’ uttered by the spinner in a fixture against the Sydney Thunder when he was overhead to say “f**k me” in frustration shortly after a teammate’s fielding error.
Paine fumed after the Boxing Day Test after being dismissed caught behind via DRS, but argued that in a similar situation Pujara was given the benefit of the doubt.
In Melbourne, Wilson was the TV umpire who sent Paine packing with the Australian wicketkeeper accusing the official of being too hasty in his assessment.
“My concern was not with the technology, it was with the precedence that was set in the first innings with (Cheteshwar) Pujara, and the fact I think the decision was made too quickly,” Paine said at the time.
“(Wilson) didn’t look at enough replays to see the full evidence. There was probably a gap between bat and ball, the line (on snicko) itself had started before it went past the bat.
“There were lots of things that didn’t marry up. I saw some photos of it … I just don’t think he took the time to look at the evidence.”
Originally published as Australia v India: Brisbane Test match a huge moment in Tim Paine’s captaincy future
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