November 2017:
The Australian leg of the Ashes 2017-18 is about to begin. The Australian Captain Steven Smith is on the top of his skills. The tremendous consistency that Smith displays, he is already hailed as the ‘Next-best after Bradman‘. The current home Ashes series will fixate his position on the Australian canvas.
The selectors meanwhile have surprised the world with a selection of a 33-year old wicket-keeper from Hobart, Tim Paine. Tim has not played Test cricket for the last seven years. He is not even the first-choice wicketkeeper of his state team in the first-class cricket. Paine contemplated retiring from cricket altogether at one stage. Now, he will keep the wickets for Australia in this Ashes.
26th March 2018:
One of the most shocking days in Australian cricket. The Test captain has confessed that it was him and his ‘leadership group’ that planned the ball-tampering on day three of the third Test against South Africa. The horrendous revelation means the captain has to step down. The Australian management sacks Steven Smith as the captain and appoints Tim Paine as the temporary leader. In the Test match where he captained only for a day, Paine succumbs to a terrible loss but there are far graver concerns at hand.
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In a stunning reversal that would befit movies, Steven Smith – the Australian hero has suddenly become the symbol of cheating in the cricket world and Tim Paine, who has scathe clear from the controversy finds himself as the 46th Test captain of Australia. The most fabulous fact remains that both Smith and Paine made their Test debut in the same Test – versus Pakistan in 2010.
The current scene is so extraordinary that a cricketer, who was not even in the team five months ago, getting perhaps the most respected position on the Australian landscape is not even the prime news. The sandpaper gate as it is called now will reveal what punishments are given to the guilty parties today but the heart-warming story to come out of this is that of Tim Paine.
The boy began by bagging the first-class cricket contract at the age of 16, the youngest-ever for the nation. Paine soon established himself in the first-class scenario earning a name as a good glove man. He did well on his Test debut and put forward some solid performances to keep himself in the race with Brad Haddin.
Unfortunately, for Tim Paine, he suffered a finger injury at a wrong time. Well, there is never an ideal time for an injury but this incident crashed the International career of Paine or so it seemed at that stage. He returned in late 2012 and continued playing for his state-team of Tasmania.
The emergence of Matthew Wade and his selection for the national team caused Paine to leave the gloves and play primarily as a batsman. He did good enough and survived the phase. All this time, Australia still could not settle down on a wicket-keeper and kept switching between Peter Neville and Matthew Wade. Finally, for the Ashes 2017-18, they called up the 33-year old wicketkeeper Tim Paine and the rest is history.
