Melbourne [Australia], December 25 (ANI): Australia Test skipper Tim Paine on Friday said that his role as a batsman changes a lot depending upon who is on the crease with him.
Paine feels lucky to have a solid batting line up which normally does the job for Australia and he has no pressure in chipping in if the side is left reeling at a certain point during the match.
“No not at all (when asked does it add to pressure as a batsman after his show in the Adelaide test when the top flopped). Look there have been few innings as a batsman for me where I had to impact the game. I’m lucky that we have such good side out top six batsmen normally does the job,” said Paine replying to a query from ANI.
“Yeah! The last Test match was my turn to stand up. So whether I’m going in after 5 for 100 or 5 for 70 then I’ve got the job to do. As I said before my role sort of changes a lot depending upon on whom I am batting with and the situation of the game,” he added.
Paine had played a fighting knock for Australia on the second day of the pink-ball Test. The hosts were left reeling at 110-7 when the final three wickets managed to add 80 more runs and the skipper played an unbeaten knock of 73 runs to help take Australia closer to the visitors’ first innings total.
The Australian skipper focuses on being flexible with his batting techniques and is ready to put on a show for Australia whenever needed.
“So I’m going to be flexible and sometimes it’s gonna be my turn to dig in score runs and that’s was the case in Adelaide and I’m hoping this week all come out good and we have more runs on board,” said Paine replying to a query from ANI.
On Thursday, Australia coach Justin Langer praised skipper Paine for his “incredible leadership” qualities.
Langer said he has enormous faith in Paine and went onto explain why the skipper has become the second-best wicket-keeper for Australia after legendary cricketer Adam Gilchrist in the longest format of the game.
“You think about Adam Gilchrist who transformed the game in this sense and he was an all-time great player. I have got enormous faith in Tim Paine every part of his game whether it is wicket-keeping, batting or captaincy,” Langer had said in a virtual press-conference on Thursday.
“I have said publicly and privately he is such an important player because he is lead wicket-keeper. His leadership is incredible and we saw how well he batted in the first innings under pressure in Adelaide, probably changed the game with the run out of Virat Kohli. He is a great player and a great leader and I literally loved having him in our team,” he explained.
Both India and Australia are set to take on each other in the Boxing Day Test, beginning Saturday. (ANI)
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