Tim Paine calls out Australia’s underperforming batters including Steve Smith

As the Australian lower order staged a fightback in Christchurch, a former captain says questions have to be asked about several Test players.

Former Test captain Tim Paine launched a withering attack on the state of Australia’s batting line-up, declaring “we wouldn’t beat England” before a lower-order fightback delivered a stirring win in New Zealand.

As he questioned whether the current Australian coaching staff and selectors were assessing the level of output of some of the line-up properly, Paine said Steve Smith should return to No.4 after a series of failures as an opener.

The Australians won four of five Tests during the home summer against first Pakistan and the West Indies but lost the second of two matches against the Windies in a shock

defeat.

Victory in the opening Test in New Zealand came on the back of a monster 176 not out from Cameron Green, who was the only batting change to the side across seven games, replacing David Warner, with Smith taking the retired opener’s spot at the top of the order.

But amid a run drought for Travis Head, who has made just 69 runs in his past six Test innings, and with question marks over Smith as an opener given he has just two scores more than 12 in nine innings, Paine said questions had to be asked before the next series against India in Australia next summer.

“We’re a better team than them (New Zealand) and it was the same against the West Indies, there seems to be a bit of a pattern. Not scoring enough runs… you can’t always believe what they’re telling you, but the leadership and coaching and captain and selectors say, ‘We have no concerns with our batters’. Well, I do now,” Paine said.

“I think all of Australia does… there are more questions coming out of the last three or four Tests than answers, and we need to find some answers pretty quickly.

Xavier Doherty " I honestly think that Steve Smith in the middle order makes this batting order so much better " pic.twitter.com/D1k9xVryOu

— Sujeet Suman (@sujeetsuman1991) March 10, 2024

“We might not beat New Zealand, we’ve lost a Test to West Indies, we wouldn’t beat England if they were playing well with a full-strength side.

“India are certainly going to trouble us with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, so there are some concerns.

“Internally, they must be speaking about it.”

An unbeaten 98 from Alex Carey and a 140-run stand with Mitch Marsh in Christchurch helped propel Australia to a famous win and a 2-0 series clean sweep.

The match brings to an end a brutal schedule for the Australians that began with six Tests in England in the middle of last year.

But Paine dismissed that as an excuse for the recent lack of output from the batters especially, singling out a move back down the order for Smith.

“To me, it looks a better side with him at No.4,” he told SEN.

“Whether that means you’re not playing someone else in the middle or one of them, like a Travis Head, goes to open. I know Travis doesn’t want to do that… so maybe it’s time to go to the specialist opener because we’ve seen Steve get out to balls he doesn’t usually get out to.”

Originally published as Tim Paine calls out Australia’s underperforming batters including Steve Smith