Mitchell Johnson has backed skipper Tim Paine to continue as Australia’s captain, and believes that calls for him to be dropped are “ridiculous.” Tim Paine’s future has been the topic of hot debate over the past 24 hours after Australia lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by a 2-1 margin as India breached the Gabba fortress.
Despite winning the first Test of the four-match series, Australia under Tim Paine failed to register another victory as an injury-ravaged Indian team scripted a memorable series triumph Down Under.
Tim Paine. Image Credit: Getty Images.
Mitchell Johnson : Ridiculous To Sack Tim Paine As Skipper
Tim Paine took charge of the Australian Test team following the 2018 sandpaper scandal in South Africa which saw Steve Smith and David Warner banned for 1 year and sacked as skipper. He has since led his country to 11 wins, four draws and eight defeats.
The 36-year-old helped Australia retain the Ashes in 2019, but the recently-concluded series against India has certainly hampered his prospect to continue. With the Ashes coming up later this year, the Aussies will look to ensure that they do not suffer another series defeat to arch rival England.
“It’s ridiculous. The comments that come out about that stuff is just nit-picking, and we’re seeing a lot of that these days,” Mitchell Johnson said while appearing on The Fast and the Curious Podcast.
David Warner and Steven Smith. Photo Credit: Getty Images.
Tim Paine was heavily criticised for his conduct in the Sydney Test Cricket legends such as Michael Vaughan, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne have also criticized Tim Paine over the last few days. They were especially critical of the Australian skipper’s sledging and on-field behaviour in the third Test at Sydney.
During the final day’s play in the 3rd Test at Sydney, he had a verbal war with Ravichandran Ashwinand resorted to abuses. Tim Paine, thereafter, apologized admitting that he got a bit carried away in the heat of the moment.
Tim Paine Expected To Lead Against South Africa And Afghanistan
But Mitchell Johnson has warned that such over the top criticism could result in players denying media access.
“It’s a sport and there’s competitiveness, we’ve got to understand there’s a thousand cameras on these players, there’s stump mics that are turned up. If we don’t want to see or hear that stuff then take away the cameras, so we only have a couple cameras, take the stump mics out and you won’t hear anything. Simple.”
Mitchell Johnson -Australia. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Tim Paine is expected to lead Australiain the upcoming tour of South Africa. But with no other Test series scheduled up until the Ashes (except perhaps a one-off Test against Afghanistan), failure to win against the Proteas may well tempt the selectors into dropping the wicket-keeper-batsman.
