Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, has questioned the appointment of Tim Paine as the skipper of Australian cricket team.
He officially was named as the captain of Australia for the fourth Test by James Sutherland, the CEO of Cricket Australia.
Vaughan took an indirect dig at Cricket Australia by proposing the name of Cameron Bancroft for captaincy post.
Here is what Vaughan wrote –
Cam Bancroft must be captaincy material … In the Leadership group in only his 7th Test … !!!
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) March 27, 2018
It is not confirmed whether Tim Paine has been given the job on a permanent basis or for just one Test match. If handed the job for long-term, it will be a big surprise.
Paine has played 12 Test matches and made his Test comeback only for the Ashes 2017/18.
The lack of performing wicketkeeper-batsman in the Australian circuit forced selectors to hand his comeback.
In 100 first-class matches, Tim Paine has just scored one century, which is a major deficiency in his batting.
Though Cricket Australia is yet to confirm anything, there are high chances of Mitchell Marsh being handed the job on a permanent basis.
Since Australia do not play any Test match for a few months, the board has enough time to ink on a new captain.
Talking of Marsh, he also earned his recall during Ashes 2017/18.
Since then, he has performed well and has fixed his place in the team, in place of Peter Handscomb.
Marsh is all set to pay extra attention to his Test career, as he decided to skip IPL to play county cricket. The Australian all-rounder is doing efforts to focus more on his Test career, which could see Cricket Australia having a look at him as a potential candidate.
It is sort of confirmed Australia will have to appoint new captains across formats.
Regardless of the fact whether Steven Smith and David Warner (along with Cameron Bancroft) are banned or fined, they are not expected to assume their role of captain and vice-captain, respectively.
Cricket Australia will announce a verdict over Smith, Warner and Bancroft today.
The three players are expected to be handed ban for one year.
If banned, this will automatically rule out Smith and Warner out of the coming season of IPL.
These three players have already been withdrawn from the fourth Test and will fly back home today (March 28). Matt Renshaw, Glenn Maxwell and Joe Burns will join Australian camp in South Africa to replace the trio.