As critics line up, Tim Paine at the top of his game behind stumps

It’s fortunate Tim Paine, as a wicketkeeper, has a hide as thick as the protective barrier of callouses on his fingers.

Australian skipper Tim Paine has a hide as thick as the callouses on his fingers. Picture: Getty Images

Alex Carey is “nipping at his heels”. Steve Smith will slot straight back in as skipper. Pat Cummins is the next Australian captain.

It’s fortunate Tim Paine, as a wicketkeeper, has a hide as thick as the protective barrier of callouses on his fingers.

Because there seems to be a lot of people keen to see the back of the Australian captain.

Opposition batsmen are at the top of a long queue, for Paine is at the top of his game behind the stumps.

Whatever you think of his captaincy, he’ll keep the job as long as Australia keep winning. Because no one’s dropping a winning captain/keeper in such good form.

Yes, he missed a stumping off Nathan Lyon in Adelaide, but deliveries that spin and bounce through the right-hander’s gate are always tough.

That one miss was blown away by two brilliant Rod Marsh-like dives in front of the cordon to get Iftikhar Ahmed and Babar Azam.

If he maintains his form here in Perth, he’ll move past one of the greats on the lead table for dismissals by an Australian gloveman.

Paine (120 catches and five stumpings) is poised to go past Bert Oldfield (130) into sixth place.

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The way he’s going, he’ll do it in Perth. Paine is averaging more than three dismissals an innings this summer. He took six catches in Adelaide and seven in Brisbane.

And while the drop-in pitch appeared slow early on Thursday, it was fast enough for Paine to pouch six catches against India last year.

Paine’s dismissals per innings ratio of 2.314 is better than any Australian keeper who has played more than two Tests.

If he does pass Oldfield this week, he’ll do it in 25 fewer Tests.

Yes, his rapid rate is a compliment to Australia’s pace attack — surely Australia’s greatest

But figures as good as Paine’s are a compliment to his silken gloves. Gloves that fold and clasp the ball with the softest of puffs — always the sign of class in a keeper.

While we’re in a complimentary mood, selectors cop it when they make an error, as they should. So they deserve the highest praise for selecting Paine for the most recent home Ashes.

Paine was about to quit cricket, but instead played in a 4-0 series win and assumed the captaincy in South Africa when ... well, you know.

Good judges knew a star when they saw one. From the very beginning too.

Ten years ago, when asked who should be Brad Haddin’s understudy for the 2009 Ashes, Barry Jarman — like Paine, one of the very few keepers to captain Australia — said he liked “the kid from Tasmania”.

“He really lets the ball come to him and nestles it into his gloves,” Jarman said. “His glovework is excellent. And the kid can bat like buggery as well.”

The last part of the prediction didn’t quite come to pass, but Paine did score his second first-class hundred earlier this season for Tasmania. His first ton, a double-hundred, was fresh in Jarman’s mind when he praised Paine’s batting — the 215 came back in 2006-07, in Perth.

Granted, Carey is making runs — 73 against Tasmania this week and 143 against WA the week before — but not enough to justify him replacing Paine in the Test side. “You’ve got a guy like Alex Carey nipping at his heels,” Fox Cricket commentator Adam Gilchrist said this week.

But Carey needs a lot more runs if Paine keeps on keeping well and Australia keep winning.

And if they do keep winning then Paine might even make a run at the next man on the keepers’ list – Wally Grout, 187 dismissals.

He’d need to play at least about another 15 Tests to pass Grout, but given the events of the past two years, who would dare rule it out?