The last week has been a nightmare for all cricket fans. Accusations, confessions, trials, media trials and so much unwanted media slinging on social media. To take you on a recap, Australian cricket has been hit hard by the ball tampering fiasco. It all started when Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera tampering with the ball. Trials followed and Cricket Australia banned Smith and Warner for 12 months for masterminding the whole ball tampering row and Cameron Bancroft for 9 months. Cricket Australia had also stated that David Warner will never be considered for any leadership roles in the future. Not just that, both Steve Smith and David Warner have been suspended from the 2018 edition of IPL as well. Cameron Bancroft has also been dumped by English county Somerset. Amidst all the hullabaloo, a not so experienced 12 Test old Tim Paine was suddenly handed the captaincy of the Australian side for the remaining of the 3rd test and the 4th test (ongoing).
Tim Paine made his debut for Australia in an One Day International against Scotland and scored his first ODI century against England at Trentbridge. A year later, he made his Test debut against Pakistan which interestingly was Steve Smith’s debut Test match as well. Tim Paine generally filled in for Brad Haddin who was first choice keeper at that time but an unfortunate finger injury made sure Paine was out of consideration mostly after that. He made his Australia comeback again in 2017 after a gap of 6 years and made heads turn when he was selected for Ashes that year. However, Trevor Hohns, Australian selection chief made it all clear and straight by terming him the “best gloveman in the country”. Timothy David Paine is a Hobart born right handed wicketkeeper batsman. He plays for the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket and was the captain of the Hobart Hurricanes before his comeback to the Australian national squad in 2017. At 16 years of age, he became Australia’s youngest ever contracted players. He has been made the full time Australian cricket captain in just his 13th match (ongoing) against South Africa. Just look at this mind boggling stat. Before this match, wicketkeepers have just captained in 15 of the 811 test matches that Australia played. Paine surely has some job to do. Though Paine has captained Tasmania at the Under 15 and Under 17 levels, however, captaining the senior national team is a different ball game altogether. As a player, he has scored 625 runs in his previous 12 tests at an average of a little over 41. With South Africa already at 313-6 at the end of the 1st day of the 4th Test, this is going to be a big test for Paine, more as a captain than as a batsman. The team needs to get together and it needs more than just strategic planning.