Australia Test captain Tim Paine has backed Steve Smith, citing that the star cricketer is good enough to return in his own post of captaincy after he ends his stint as the captain of the national team in the longer format. However, Paine also said that he has no plans to leave captaincy anytime soon but he also stated that he is confident that Smith is the perfect candidate for the job.

Meanwhile, Paine’s comments came after Steve Smith said a couple of months ago that he is open to captaincy if he is offered a chance to replace the current captain Tim Paine. It is also noteworthy that, Paine took over the reins as captain from Smith after he was banned for two years from the roles for his involvement in the infamous ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.

READ HERE: “He is the real deal” – Aakash Chopra on Chetan Sakariya

“I think so. Obviously, I don’t make that decision but the time I played with Steve as captain he was excellent,” Paine told Newscorp media on Thursday. “Certainly tactically he is as good as you get. Then obviously South Africa events happened and he’s not doing it anymore. But, yeah, I would support him getting that job again.”

Meanwhile, Tim Paine has done well as a skipper and he has no plans to quit the captaincy too but suggested that he might be tempted to do well in the game and want Australia to dominate England in the 2021-22 Ashes as well.

“If I feel like the time is right and we’ve beaten the ‘Poms’ 5-0, what a way to go out. But it might be a tight series and we might be chasing 300 on the last day and I’m 100 not out and hit the winning runs – and then I might go again.” Paine said.

ALSO READ: “We must back him” – Deep Dasgupta on Kuldeep Yadav

On the other hand, Australia selectors chairman Trevor Hohns has said in November that Steve Smith would probably be a contender to succeed Paine but they had not discussed it yet as well.