Rather than preserving his wicket, he played with the freedom befitting an Australian wicketkeeper
Daniel Brettig at the MCG27-Dec-2019Four months ago, on the eve of the final Ashes Test in England, Tim Paine was asked whether he might lead Australia as far as the 2021 ICC World Championship final, and gave the following, fuzzy response: “Jesus, I don’t know about that. I haven’t thought about it to be honest. I haven’t thought much past this Test match, as I’ve said in the last 18 months, I think it’s foolish at my age if you do. I’m just taking each day as it comes, as boring as that is.”The aforementioned fuzziness was evident on the opening day of the Oval Test, too, as Paine sent England in upon winning the toss, giving away the advantage of letting Steven Smith dominate in first innings as he tends to do, and seeing Australia’s chance to win the series – as well as retain the Ashes – slip away.Tim Paine works through the leg side•AFP”Something didn’t feel right,” Langer told this week. “Were we satisfied we’d won the Ashes? Painey won the toss and bowled, which surprised us a bit. We dropped some catches that first morning.”At that time, Paine was commonly being referred to as a “wartime captain” who had seen the team through to peace and success and performed his role as well as might have been expected. But there had never been much thought as to what lay beyond the steep assignment of an away Ashes series. Similarly, his batting had been characterised by a desire to preserve his wicket and the Australian innings for as long as possible, something underlined by how he had developed a knack for lower-order partnerships, commonly at a sedate scoring rate.Fast forward to the Boxing Day Test, however, and Paine was able to bat with a clarity of thought about his role and his future that reflected a far greater degree of focus on how he best serves his team, and for how much longer he may do so. Late December, generally a time of stocktaking, also saw him state far more frankly that yes, he is now looking at leading the team all the way through to the 2021 championship final at Lord’s, should Australia manage to qualify.”We want to win every Test we play, especially now with the Test championship and I think we have an eye more on that than the official ranking. We’re very aware of what games are worth, what points [are needed]. It’s not looking too far ahead now, that’s not how it is,” Paine said on Christmas Day. “It’s Test match by Test match because there is so much on the line. We have some goals as a team where we want to be and winning Test matches is a huge part of that.”Coming in to bat at the fall of Smith’s wicket an hour into the second day, Paine was facing a scenario where his former self may have looked to dig in. If even Smith had found things so difficult as to score only eight runs in the morning – the visitors continued to frustrate him with short balls – then what chance did Paine, a fighting if not quite fluent Travis Head, and the tail have?Tim Paine raises his bat after reaching fifty•Getty ImagesBut over the past few months, there has been a growing realisation that, as captain, wicketkeeper and No. 7 batsman in a team that is growing in strength and confidence, Paine needs to be able to play with freedom befitting the proud tradition of Australian wicketkeepers seeking to change the momentum of a game. As Brad Haddin, the former gloveman and then Australia assistant coach, has put it: “One thing for a keeper is understanding what your role is, and that’s to change the momentum in games and get through some tough situations.”And although no one has done this more often or more masterfully for Australia than Adam Gilchrist, he is not the only one. Rod Marsh, Ian Healy, Haddin and Matthew Wade in his first Test match incarnation. Other, more circumspect wicketkeeper-batsmen have not tended to last: Peter Nevill the most recent example.Paine was himself given a reminder of this role during the Ashes by no less an authority than Healy, who at a time when Australia were still playing somewhat conservative cricket under Allan Border and Bob Simpson, could commonly be relied upon to provide the innings with a shot of adrenaline-fired cut shots, flicks and dabs. Speaking to Paine after the traumatic Headingley defeat, Healy’s advice was summed up as “bat like a wicketkeeper”.”He just said, and he was probably right, in the Test match at Headingley we got so close to retaining the Ashes that I probably just tried a little bit hard,” Paine said. “And traditionally with me, when I try too hard, particularly with batting, it gets worse and worse. His message was to go out and bat like a wicketkeeper, and I think that’s when I play my best – when I’m looking to score, getting in the contest and just watching the ball rather than thinking too much about it technically because it certainly hasn’t worked for me over the journey.”In Perth against New Zealand, on a more challenging pitch, Paine had reverted somewhat back to his previous batting posture, seeking survival and crease occupation to push the start of the tourists’ first innings further into the evening. But in Melbourne, after perhaps growing a little frustrated with Australia’s slow progress alongside most of the 59,676 present at the MCG, Paine set out to play a classical wicketkeeper’s innings.Tim Paine and Travis Head enjoyed an excellent partnership•AFPWhile it did not all work for him early in the innings, Paine was positive in everything he did. He connected with some strong pull shots when Neil Wagner banged the ball in short, and when Trent Boult pitched fuller in search of the outside edge, he drove with wonderful fluency through cover. After 11 balls, Paine had 12 runs and had already brought a previously drowsy morning crowd to considerable life.”At that stage the wicket was still on the slowish side. He lunged quite a bit, hit on the up, hit through covers and there wasn’t much swing on offer,” Wagner said. “We sort of felt like the first couple of balls to him was pitch it up and nick him off and a couple of plays and misses, if you get an edge there, then you open up an end and it’s a different sort of game, but he looked to take the short ball on, which obviously creates opportunities but you’ve got to give credit where it’s due, he played well.”He scored off it, he was real decisive in the ones he wanted to attack, and then the ones he left there were a lot he pulled out of, which full credit goes to him, the way he played it. You want to try and get him out like that, but he was still able to score on it, and at the time we got him out, for some reason the ball started swinging again and just a little bit of nip. The whole innings there wasn’t one ball that hit the pad, and then finally two balls in a short space of time started hitting the pads, which tells you it’s quickening up a little bit.”Having fought so hard for more than 104 overs, New Zealand’s response to this aggression from Paine was to lapse into waywardness, allowing the Australian captain to carry on adding runs to the tally with damaging speed – he had never reached a Test fifty in fewer than the 72 balls he managed here. At the same time, Paine gave Head the confidence to score more freely himself, going on to a century that may well come to be seen as a vital, formative moment for the South Australian left-hander after so many squandered starts in the past.All up, their stand was worth a bold 150 in 43.3 overs, quite a contrast with the furtive 68 squirrelled away in 31.1 overs by Head with Smith either side of stumps on day one. Paine had thus collected the majority share of the partnership that ensured Australia would surpass 400 for the fourth consecutive Test match, a position which the coach Justin Langer knows is just about impregnable for a team with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon to call upon.In the end, Paine was deprived of the chance to go on to a first Test century by a hearty Wagner and a ball-tracking verdict that appeared to miscalculate the first point of impact with the stumps: a dose of misfortune for Paine that he appeared more than a little miffed about. But given the chance to ponder the innings and its impact from the cooler vantage point of the dressing room, Paine will be able to conclude that he has now set a clear marker for how to play as the No. 7 in this team, and to do so until 2021’s championship decider.If he needed anymore perspective, it was provided in the closing overs when Pane’s opposite number Kane Williamson exhibited his own case of fuzziness. Needing to survive until stumps, Williamson hooked unwisely at James Pattinson, and the running catch was pouched by none other than an exultant Paine. No longer just a wartime leader, Paine is improving alongside his team.