Citing the example of the skipper and his performance during the Boxing Day Test against New Zealand, Langer said that the wicket-keeper still had a lot left in him.
After Steve Smith and David Warner were suspended for a year due to a ball tampering scandal, it was Tim Paine who took over the reins as captain. As captain of the Australian team, he has had his fair share of success. He led the team to an Ashes victory and recently beat New Zealand at home in a Boxing Day Test match.
Justin Langer, Australia’s cricket team coach, supported Tim Paine and expressed his desire for the player to remain captain until the final of the World Test Championship which will be held in 2021. But with Steve Smith back in the team’s lineup, there have been rumours that he will be given the role and responsibility of captain again soon.
‘Truthfully, I can’t see one reason why he wouldn’t. His last game – you judge on his last performance – he was probably pushing to be Man of the Match. He had eight dismissals, 70-odd with the bat, and the way he played his innings was what was most exciting. The way he leads the group. I just literally can’t think of one reason at the moment, he’s so fit, as to why he wouldn’t keep playing for as long as he wants to or needs to’, said Langer in an interview.
Speaking about Tim Paine’s performance during the Boxing Day Test match against New Zealand, Langer said that the captain hasn’t shown his full potential yet and has plenty of strength left in him. He then added that Paine was the best wicket-keeper in the world and enjoyed being put in the position of responsibility.
He also added that there are changes to take place in the playing XI of the team at the third Test at Sydney given the call up of Mitchell Swepson. Langer said that it will be difficult to make changes given the current team chemistry of the players. Adding to this, he said that the ‘changes that the wicket at SCG will undergo during the two days left before the match will also have a role to play in the call regarding any changes in the squad’.
The ICC World Test Championship is a league competition for Test cricket run by the International Cricket Council, which started on 1 August 2019. It is intended to be the premier championship for Test cricket. To find out more about the ICC World Test Championship, visit Betwala’s page.
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