Tim Paine will resume his role as a keeper who’s handy with the bat after rightly receiving the thanks and praise of a wounded cricket nation. Paine’s soft hands were ideal for the kid glove treatment required in South Africa, but Cricket Australia says his appointment as captain applies only to Tests. So the one-day tour of England in June will likely be led by Aaron Finch. Paine impressed in his short captaincy stint after the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal. The locum skipper restored some dignity to proceedings by asking his players to shake hands with the South African players before the fourth and final Test. He addressed the press candidly and eloquently in the most awkward of circumstances.
But CA apparently feels the mayhem of an ODI — with its attendant blur of field and bowling changes — is too much for a wicketkeeper whose name is not MS Dhoni. Whoever leads Australia on the upcoming five ODI, one T20I, tour of England will likely be charged with the World Cup defence next year as well. When Steve Smith returns at the end of next summer he will do so as a player only, as he is banned from leading an Australian side for another year after his playing suspension expires. Finch appears to be the leading contender for the one-day captaincy, especially after his bountiful home series against England. The captain-in-waiting made 107, 106 and 62 before missing the final two ODIs and part of the subsequent T20I series with a hamstring injury. Here lies another worry in the festering pile of Australian cricket problems: whether Finch, who’ll be 32 by the time of the World Cup, can retain both his form and his fitness. After all, he was dropped from the ODI side in 2016-17 after making just one 50 in eight innings.
No comments:
Post a Comment