Paine-ful exit could prove a blow to Joe
CUMMINS SET FOR CAPTAINCY
TIM PAINE’S tearful resignation with three weeks to go until the firstTest at the Gabba was described in headlines yesterday as “an Ashes blow”.
But the obvious follow-up question that remains to be answered is: To who exactly?
It may seem harsh to even pose the query, given the excruciating nature of the sexting scandal that has left Paine’s personal standing in tatters and his Test career in the balance.
There will be no delight in either the Australia or England camps after such an embarrassing blunder from a man with a wife and family.
But when England absorb the information on the Gold Coast, it will be with mixed emotions because if Australia were going to be shorn of anything, Paine’s captaincy would not be top of Joe Root’s wish-list.
Paine vacates the role as skipper with an underwhelming record, having won just 11 of 23 Tests.
It is a win percentage that compares unfavourably with all six of his permanent predecessors stretching back to Mark Taylor, who left the post in 1999.
Paine lost two series to India in Australia and drew an Ashes series in 2019 that a better captain would have won.
His troubles in failing to break Ben Stokes and Jack Leach’s lastwicket partnership at Headingley as England chased down 358 was his lowest point, and demonstrated a lack of clear thinking that dogged his time in charge. His captaincy was under the spotlight in Australia’s last Test, too, when they surrendered a 32-year unbeaten streak at the Gabba in January to lose the series to India in the last hour in Brisbane.
What Paine had been, until now, was a dignified figure at the helm, one who restored the values associated with the Baggy Green.
He never had the street-smart of Michael Clarke or Ricky Ponting and his batting was always on a different plane, even if it was about average for a wicketkeeper.
His glovework, good but not exceptional, could be enough to keep him in the side, with Cricket Australia and Paine insisting he is still available for selection for the Ashes.
Pat Cummins, the No.1 paceman in the world in Test cricket, is favourite to take over as skipper.
He would be the first bowler to lead the team since Richie Benaud in 1963. The other option, and one Cricket Australia may be reluctant to take off the back of another unedifying scandal, would be to reinstate Steve Smith.
It was Smith’s resignation in March 2018 – after the notorious sandpaper incident in Cape Town – that brought Paine to the role in the first place. A Cummins-Smith axis, quite possibly with Paine adding to the mix if he remains in the side, does not weaken Australia.
It does quite the opposite.