Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine was heavily criticized for his captaincy and lackluster show behind the stumps in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020. Recently, Paine claimed that his team was distracted by India’s sideshows due to which they “took their eye off the ball.”
Australia was subjected to a humiliating series defeat in their own den last year. Even in the absence of several test specialists, India ended up winning the series by a margin of 2-1.
Paine pointed out that India were initially not ready to travel to Brisbane and Australia did not know where the final Test of the series was going to be played. While addressing the media at a Chappell Foundation function, Paine claimed that India are good at distracting with things that don’t matter and Australia fell for that in the Test series at home.
“Part of the challenge of playing against India is they’re very good at niggling you and trying to distract you with stuff that doesn’t really matter and there were times in that series where we fell for that,” Paine said.
“The classic example was when they said they weren’t going to the Gabba so we didn’t know where we were going. They’re very good at creating these sideshows and we took our eye off the ball,” he added.
India were without Virat Kohli, who flew back home after the first Test where India were bundled out for 36 in the final innings. However, Ajinkya Rahane led the Indian team thereafter and inspired the youngsters to script an astonishing series win Down Under.
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