While Australian cricket team is running in the poor form since the ball-tampering incident, their captain Tim Paine is hopeful on the team’s future by mentioning “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Missing many important players in the ongoing England tour, Australia has suffered a 5-0 whitewash in the ODI series against the hosts England. Moreover, they have slipped down to the no.6 in the ICC ODI rankings – lowest in the last 34 years.
However, Australian wicketkeeper and new Test and ODI captain Tim Paine believes the team will grow up soon.
After the end of the low-scoring fifth and final ODI at Manchester on Sunday, where Australia almost snatched a victory after putting just 206-run target but English wicketkeeper Jos Buttler’s heroic unbeaten century dashed their fate.
However, Paine felt very happy with his bowlers by quoting, “I just think there was half an hour there where we bowled a touch wide. But apart from that, I felt like our bowlers were outstanding today and certainly not to blame for the loss.
“But again in this game, we have shown glimpses with bat and ball that there is certainly some real talent in the squad. And while it has been a bitterly disappointing series, I suppose (there is) a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.”
While Australia had a good opening start (60 runs partnership between Aaron Finch and Travis Head) at the Manchester, English off-spinner Moeen Ali became the game changer again, who bowled pretty good in the ODI series.
Talking about that, Paine quoted, “We haven’t been able to put a full game together at any stage and I think it has shown throughout the whole series. Every time England’s good players have put us under pressure, with the bat or the ball, we have stumbled a little bit, and that’s probably again what happened today.
“We got off to a great start, then Moeen came on, who has had a pretty good series against us, and guys are probably just over-thinking it a bit. He ends up with 4 for 40 again and we are in trouble again and have to rebuild a bit.”
In this tour, Australia missed Steven Smith and David Warner’s services as they are serving one-year banned due to involving in the ball-tampering incident during the Cape Town Test last March. Moreover, Australian dependable and regular pacers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins missed this tour along with the all-rounder Mitchell Marsh due to their several injuries.
Paine believes Australia will be stronger and harder to beat once they return to the squad.
The 33-year-old said, “We’ve got a number of players who weren’t in this squad who have played in and won World Cups. They know what it takes. Cricket Australia as an organisation knows what it takes and whilst I’ve heard a few times this team looks like it hasn’t got a plan or doesn’t know where it’s going, we’ve got a clear direction, we know where we’re going.
“We know we’re a long way off the mark at the moment but the World Cup is not for 12 months. We know when we get our best team on the park, when we’re playing our best cricket we’re going to be right in the thick of it.”
