Paine rates Buttler higher than Dhoni now
Stand-in Aussie skipper uncertain of his future after England whitewash
Australia skipper Tim Paine has rated England’s Jos Buttler as the “best white-ball wicketkeeper-batsman in the world” and even went on to hail the Englishman as better than India’s World Cup winning former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Buttler is in the form of his life, having single-handedly rescued England from a precarious position with a valiant century, to help the hosts complete their first 5-0 whitewash of Australia here on Sunday.
Asked to rate Buttler, Paine, who himself is a stumper said: “He’s good, he’s very good. Right now, he’d have to be the best white-ball wicketkeeper batsman in the world.”
“I don’t think there’s too many guys to challenge him. MS Dhoni is pretty good, but at this moment, Jos is at the absolute peak of his powers.
“He understands his oneday game so well and knows his strengths inside out and just doesn’t go away from him,” Paine added.
Buttler scored 275 runs in the just-concluded series with three unbeaten knocks that included scores of 91, 54 and 110.
Paine, meanwhile, has cast doubt over his ODI future after his touring side were thumped 5-0 by England, who sealed the series whitewash with a onewicket victory in Manchester.
The 33-year-old Paine, Australia’s Test captain, was handed the role for the one-day portion of their limited-overs tour of England but chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said at the time it was probably only a stopgap measure.
The wicketkeeper, leading the side while regular captain Steve Smith serves a 12-month ban following a ball-tampering scandal, scored just 36 runs in the series as England outclassed the World Cup holders with their powerful batting line-up.
Fellow wicketkeeper Alex Carey played the final two games in Durham and at Old Trafford, but only as a batsman, and has been appointed vicecaptain for the sole Twenty20 match against England on June 27 and their T20 tour of Zimbabwe in July.
Looking forward
Aaron Finch is Australia’s T20 captain. “All I know is I was coming here to do this series and I’ve said a few times before, when you are my age it’s a bit foolish to look ahead,” Paine told Cricket Australia’s website.
“Certainly, I am really looking forward to captaining the Test team and continuing how I have been playing in that format. But where I go with the rest of my cricket is something we will discuss in the coming weeks.”
Paine was thrust into the Test captaincy role after Australian cricket was rocked by the ball-tampering incident in South Africa in March, creating a leadership vacuum with both Smith and his deputy David Warner handed one-year suspensions.
He was then also surprisingly given the captaincy for the series in England, with Finch given the vice-captaincy.