Cricket: Tim Paine faces juggling act against India

Australia’s skipper has a lot on his plate heading into today’s second Test. But his biggest examination is around the corner.

Stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist celebrates victory in India in 2004

I had some demons to confront at the start of the 2004 tour of India. My most recent scores from the previous tour had been 0-0-1-1. Andrew Denton had been kind enough to suggest I get a sponsorship deal with Telstra — numbers like those were only good for an international telephone call.

We had a team strong enough to finally win in India. It was still the final frontier for Australian cricket — the heartbreak of the 2001 loss under Steve Waugh meant we hadn’t won there since 1969. Before the tour, though, our captain Ricky Ponting broke his finger. I felt sick. The job was mine if I wanted it.

I seriously thought about knocking it back. I’d have to go through what Tim Paine is going through now, juggling the wicketkeeping duties with batting at No 7 as well as the extra duties associated with the leadership.

Reluctantly I said yes, but with major input from all involved we won the series. I was as emotionally and physically drained as I’ve ever been after that series — and I knew one thing for certain. I never wanted to be Test captain again.

Tim has a lot on his plate heading into today’s second Test. Australia’s coming off a loss. India’s tails are up. They’re chasing what we were in 2004 — a historic ­triumph. When we won the first Test back then, the shot in the arm was enormous. We had proof we could win in a country that had rarely been kind to us.

Tim’s performances have been good. He’s carrying himself well. There’s no signs of fraying at the edges, notwithstanding the latest blow to his finger.

But if I had a bit to deal with in 2004, Tim has more now. He’s not just preparing himself for the Test. He’s involved in everything from planning team meetings to nutting out the tactics. I remember the captaincy distracting me from my own game, but that might have been a blessing in disguise. I barely had time to think about the 0-0-1-1.

Tim’s real test will come if he has a challenging session behind the stumps. When you’re on top of your own game, it’s not too taxing to cast your eye over everyone else, work out your bowling changes, keep the ship running. But when you feel your own work slipping a little, which we all do on occasions, that’s when it can feel like you have one too many ­burdens.

Every Test cricketer is going to make a mistake or have a bad day. His challenge will be when he puts a chance down or misses a stumping, straight away the discussions will begin about his workload. It will be a matter of Tim needing to block them out.

I didn’t have a great keeping game at Chennai in 2004, and there was a significant amount of fairly scathing comment about how much I could handle? The key for Tim will be, when that ­inevitably turns up, how he can treat it as white noise and trust in the backing of his coach, selectors and teammates. I personally am backing him in. His captaincy on day one in Adelaide was particularly good and he’s the right man to lead the nation’s team at the moment.

Don’t get me wrong about the Test captaincy. I embraced and relished the challenge of keeping and batting as well. There’s a photo of when we won the series — it was the pinnacle of my career and the photo shows all the emotion of it. I could get myself up emotionally for one tour but I knew in the back of my mind — well, it was the forefront of my mind — that I could never have done it full-time. A trifecta of ­responsibility was never for me in the long term. It’s such an extraordinary workload that needs to be carefully balanced.

That doesn’t mean Tim can’t do it. He’s obviously aware of it. People around him are aware of it. MS Dhoni did it quite well for a significant amount of time for India. The tourists’ current skipper, Virat Kohli, will be on a high in Perth, as we were when we won the first Test in 2004. When you’ve built up a tour as a potential breakthrough, and when you get off to a winning start, you know you can actually pull off a pretty significant achievement.

To be the first Indian side to win in Australia is a huge driving force, as it was for us. It’s a great motivational factor. It’s invigorating. It’s bigger than other series’ triumphs.

You’re thinking about all the former players who have been humbled in the places where you might succeed. We knew what a win in India would mean for Australian cricket.

I get the sense that holy grail mentality is what is driving India now. It’s a reciprocal mindset. To win in uncharted territory … that’s something to phone home about.