SYDNEY: Amid the growing noise surrounding his future as Australia’s Test captain, Tim Paine is at peace with the fact that he may be about to enter his last summer of cricket in charge, and instead has his eyes set on laying the groundwork for Australia’s long-term aim of winning the World Test Championship and beating India in India in the time he has left.
Having assumed leadership responsibilities at the ripe old age of 33, Paine’s run at the top was always on borrowed time. Now, with Steve Smith nearing the end of his two-year captaincy ban, imposed on him by the Cricket Australia board in the aftermath of the Newlands ball-tampering episode, Paine is aware that time is short, but he is keen on making the most of it.
“It might be (my last summer), I’m not too sure,” he said. “I haven’t looked at it that way at the moment. But as I’ve said many a time, I’m enjoying doing it. I feel good physically, I feel good mentally. So while that continues, and I’m scoring enough runs and keeping well enough, then I’d like to continue. But I know when you get to my age, that can change really quickly. I’m not going to look too far ahead. I’m really looking forward to this summer.
“It’s a conversation we touched on lightly last night — what is this Test team’s goal? And obviously, at the moment, and speaking even really briefly with a lot of the players this morning, our goal is to get back to that No 1 ranking and we want to win that Test Championship.
“To do that, we’re going to have to be good enough to win in India, and we’re going to have to be good enough to beat everyone, everywhere. It’s the only way we’re going to get to where we want to get to. It’s an exciting period, and I’m looking forward to being part of the start of that and there is no end point at the moment.”
The upside of Paine’s age is that it has given him a mature lens to look at his future with. It’s the sort of maturity he admits he didn’t have a few years ago. “I think years ago, it probably would have bothered me. But now, it actually doesn’t bother me one bit,” he said. “I’m motivated from within. I know what I want to do and what I want to achieve, and I think when you’re the Australian captain and the Australian keeper, they’re two of the most critiqued roles in Australian sport, and at the moment, I have to hold them both.
“I know I’m going to be in the crosshairs for people all the time, but at the same time I also get a lot of positive feedback and a lot of people telling me how well I’m doing as well. That’s just part of the job at times, you’re going to get critiqued and you’re not going to like it, and other times you’re going to get praised when you think you’ve done something that’s pretty normal.
“I think there’s always talk when an Australian captain gets older, there’s always talk of who is the next one, when is he going to stop. I think that’s natural, and that’s always going to be the case.”