Tim Paine needs to be credited for his conduct after the Sydney Test

Australia captain needs to be applauded for accepting that he had dropped below the standards he set for himself and his team for the last three years

The good behaviour and relations between India and Australia during the first couple of Tests had people saying that the Australian cricketers had lost their edge and did not play hard anymore.

Cut to the final day of the third Test and Tim Paine is being criticised for his exchange of words with Ravichandran Ashwin during that gruelling final session. The incident proved two things-one is that you simply cannot please everybody, and eventually one has to do what comes naturally and spontaneously. The sooner one learns that the easier it is to deal with the public eye and regular scrutiny. 

The second is that Tim Paine needs to be credited for his conduct after the Test. He took ownership of the situation and accepted that he had dropped below the standards that he himself has worked so hard to set for himself and his team for the last three years. 

Frustrated figure
Clearly, he was frustrated by the incredible resistance offered by Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari and succumbed to that frustration. Full marks to Paine for admitting to a mistake and to Ashwin for not just reacting in kind, but also for ensuring that he kept his cool and focus.

When I was ‘keeper, I was no saint but in general kept away from such chatter since I was nervous that it would distract me as much as the batsman, and lead to a missed chance. I guess that did happen in Paine’s case when he missed a hard chance shortly after the exchange with Ashwin.

Finally, all chatter is not bad. a lot of happy banter also takes place between those behind the stumps and in front—Paine calling Rishabh Pant a baby during the last India tour was an example of that. They bonded after play and the young Indian posed for photographs with Paine’s family. Clearly, all chatter is not sinister.

The other controversy was revolving around Steven Smith tampering with Pant’s guard. My opinion is that there was simply nothing to it. Anybody who has played cricket would know that the guard marks fade and get painted over very often, and when that happens,  the batsman just takes guard again. 

No player would get affected by this. I, too, have often stood in front of the wicket between overs or during drinks break to get an idea of where the rough is and what the wicket is looking like. Smith seemed to be doing just that, and too much is being made of the incident.

There is a lot of cricket left in the series as both teams get ready for Brisbane, a venue where the hosts have not been defeated for 30 years. However, the circumstances are different this time round since it is not the first Test of a series and is in fact taking place late in the summer. Very often, the pace and bounce of the Gabba wicket make it hard for touring teams to get acclimatised to at the start of a tour, but the Indians have no such problems this time.

The problem they do have their continuing injury worries, and it would be interesting to see whether they can overcome this new spate of injuries just as they did the earlier ones. The pace attack will be a virtually untried one and senior players like Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane would need to ensure that the bowlers are ready.

Harris to replace Pucovski
For Australia, Will Pucovski has been ruled out with a dislocated shoulder and has been replaced by Marcus Harris. 

The Australians will be disappointed at how things panned out on that last day in Sydney. It is a tight turnaround between the last two Tests so they would know that they need to put that game behind them and look ahead at the next one. The series is wide open and there’s everything to play for at the Gabba.

Gameplan

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