AUSSIE BOOST AS PAINE QUITS OVER SEXTING

Tearful skipper steps down over scandal but it may not be bad news for their Ashes hopes after a dismal run

BY GIDEON BROOKS

TIM PAINE resigning as Australia skipper just three weeks before the first Test at the Gabba was described in various headlines as “an Ashes blow” yesterday.

But the question which remains to be answered has to be: To who exactly?

It may seem harsh to ask given the excruciating nature of the sexting scandal that has left his personal standing in tatters and his Test career in the balance.

There will be no delight in either England or Australia camps after such an embarrassing personal 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.

He vacates the role with an underwhelming record of 11 victories in 23 Tests.

It is a win percentage which compares unfavourably with all six of his predecessors stretching back to Mark Taylor.

More importantly, he won just two of the six series when he led the Aussies, losing to India twice in Australia and drawing an Ashes series in 2019 which a better captain would have won.

Paine’s troubles in failing to break Ben Stokes and Jack Leach’s last-wicket partnership at Headlingley as England chased down 358 was his lowest point, but it demonstrated a lack of clear thinking which has dogged his time in charge.

His captaincy was again under the spotlight in Australia’s last Test, when they surrendered a 32-year unbeaten streak at the Gabba in losing the series to India in the last hour.

What Paine has been, until now at least, was a dignified figure at the helm, one who has 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 lower level even if about average for a wicketkeeper.

His glovework, good but not exceptional, could yet be enough to keep him in the Test side and Cricket Australia and Paine both insisted he remained available for selection for the Ashes. Pat Cummins (below), the No.1 fast bowler in the world in Test cricket, is favourite to take over.

He would be the first bowler to lead the side since Richie Benaud in 1964.

The other option, and one Cricket Australia may be reluctant to take given it is off the back of another unedifying scandal, would be to reinstate Steve Smith.

It was Smith stepping down in March 2018 after the sandpaper incident in Cape Town which brought Paine to the role in the first place.

A Cummins-smith axis, with Paine possibly adding to the mix if he plays, does not weaken Australia, quite the opposite.