‘I saw it coming’ – Paine on white-ball axing

SYDNEY: Tim Paine wasn’t surprised when Australia replaced him with Aaron Finch as captain of the One-day International side, saying he always knew the tour of England in June would be his last white-ball international series.

Paine captained Australia in England in what was their first international series since the ball-tampering incident in Cape Town in March. It was one to forget for the men from Down Under as they were trumped 5-0 by the No 1 team in the ICC Men’s ODI Team Rankings.When Finch was named captain of the ODI side for the series against South Africa last week, what Paine had always known was confirmed.

“I saw it coming before the UK tour, to be honest,” Paine told cricket.com.au. “The plan … was to focus just on Test cricket. Then obviously what happened, happened (ball-tampering bans to Smith, Warner and Bancroft) and all of a sudden, we didn’t have a captain or vice-captain,”

“But I was always aware of the fact that I wasn’t going to be the person going forward for the World Cup.”Paine, however, admitted that had he performed well in England, he might have extended his limited-overs career for Australia.“Clearly, had I gone there and scored three hundreds, things might have been different,” he said.