Tim Paine has not been among the runs and like his team, he has been struggling to match up to the challenge thrown by the Indian bowlers in the ongoing four-match Test series.
The Australian top order batsmen have failed to deliver throughout the Test series and nobody in their entire team has managed to score a century thus far. The highest score by an Aussie has been 79 which came courtesy Marcus Harris in the first innings of the ongoing Test match.
The formerly much-maligned Indian batting, on the other hand, has been excellent in the series. Cheteshwar Pujara leads the chart with 521 runs and three centuries, while Rishabh Pant and Virat Kohli are second and third, respectively, on the leading run-scorers chart with one century each to their names.
The batting effort by the hosts was once again disappointing on a Sydney pitch where the Indians piled on the runs. The Australian agony was perfectly summed up by the way their leader, Paine got dismissed.
The skipper was batting on 5 when he got clean bowled by Kuldeep Yadav and the dismissal looked really ugly. It was a flighted leg spinner by the Chinaman and Paine played all over the ball – his feet did not move and he threw his bat leaving a gaping hole between bat and himself. The ball spun and knocked over his stumps.
Kuldeep Yadav beat Tim Paine all ends up to pick up the 6th Aussie wicket! ?
— SPN- Sports (@SPNSportsIndia) January 5, 2019
LIVE on SONY SIX and SONY TEN 3.#ChhodnaMat #AUSvIND #SPNSports pic.twitter.com/ae5Y7Q6OGf
The Australian captain, naturally, came in for a lot of criticism for the way he threw his wicket away.
That @tdpaine36 attempted drive was so clumsy it should have had L-Plates on..#AUDvIND pic.twitter.com/wSBxUzLbBJ
— Francis Leach (@SaintFrankly) January 5, 2019
The weakest link in Australian team: Tim Paine
— Ashish (@Ashish100392) January 5, 2019
If the skipper of any test team has no hundred against his name,he doesn't deserve to be a captain #INDvsAUS #AUSvIND #SPNSports #ChhodnaMat
Now to address the elephant in the room. What's Tim Paine doing in the test side let alone captain? His batting aint up to it. No 50's in the series. Oh lovely bloke though. Great story, nearly retired a year ago etc. Tends to escape criticism young Timothy #INDvAUS
— Danny Ando (@AndoDanny) January 5, 2019
Kuldeep to Tim Paine...#AusvInd pic.twitter.com/vQZ24F1aNu
— Cricket Fantasy (@Cricket_Fantasy) January 5, 2019
Tim Paine ?♂️? pic.twitter.com/RkLJO56smu
— 14 (@shashaa1495) January 5, 2019
Cant catch, cant bat, no tactical nous. #Captaincatastrophe & coach Justin Langer as well as batting coach Graeme Hick deserve the record of Australias worst team since Kim Hughes. @tdpaine36 must go
— Phil McGee (@philmcgee) January 5, 2019
#AUSvIND @RishabPant777 The best babysitter ever.. #COTI ?? pic.twitter.com/X5bysPMKt1
— The Bharat Army (@thebharatarmy) January 5, 2019
The last (and only) time Tim Paine made a First Class century:
— Darren Murphy ? (@MrDMurphy) January 5, 2019
- Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back was #1
- Saw III was the #1 movie
- John Howard was in office
- Justin Langer dropped him on 199#AUSvIND