There has been a certain hype around India’s tour to Australia which is scheduled to for later this year which will feature 4-match Test series, even though a thick cover of dark clouds surround it due to the coronavirus pandemic. Matches behind closed doors are the new norm but Cricket Australia is hoping to allow some calculated number of fans in the stadium. However, the Aussie skipper, Tim Paine has opined that the absence of crowd will not affect anyone much..

Paine reckons that a player tends to forget about the crowd once he gets into the match zone. Tim Paine at the same time added that “world-class” stadiums in Australia leave the nation with a lot of choices and if needed the venues can be shifted for the much-awaited India series.

Notably, there have been reports saying the Cricket Australia (CA) might shift the Boxing Day Test venue from the traditional Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) if positive Covid-19 cases continue to rise in Victoria.

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Talking about the same, Time Paine explained, “We are hopeful that everywhere we play, come summertime, we’ll be able to have crowds. Certainly from a player’s point of view, we want to be playing in front of big crowds. At the best venues and a big day like Boxing Day is something that everyone looks forward to and a big part of that is playing at the MCG.”

During a video-conference with the reporters, the Aussie skipper further explained, “So, fingers crossed that things go well enough for us to be able to do that but we are spoilt for choice in Australia, we’ve got some world-class stadiums, so in case something had to change, we’ve plenty of options. I don’t think it (no crowd) should affect anyone. So crowd or no crowd, it’ll all boil down to performing and executing your skills better.”

Hobart-born wicket-keeper batsman showered praises for his Indian counterpart, Virat Kohli, and said that they were the better team during the last tour. Tim Paine Australia as a team has improved in the last 2 years but they will have to pile up massive runs on the board to put the visitors under pressure.

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Tim Paine explained, “We certainly struggled against them last time. That said, they (India) played really well. I’m sure we’ve learnt a lot from playing against them last summer… we think we are a better team now than we were then. So as good as our bowling attack is, you still need to be scoring runs in Test matches to get yourself in a winning position.”