Mohali may pave Paine's road to Ashes

Tim Paine has never fought harder. Mentally exhausted, gloves drenched in sweat, he felt he had been batting forever.

Looking up at the PCA Stadium scoreboard on the second morning of the first Test against India, Paine viewed a sobering reality – he had made all of nine runs.

At times like these Test cricket can feel a task almost too vexing for any man, let alone a 25-year-old Tasmanian wicketkeeper raised on pitches more helpful to seam than spin.

Paine, though, stood up to the pressure applied by Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha and Zaheer Khan, inching from there to a Test-best 92.

“I said to Watto (Shane Watson) at one stage it’s as hard as I’ve had to fight,” said Paine.

“I think I was on nine at the time, it felt like I’d been out there forever, it was hot, and I was finding it really hard to score, they were bowling really well.

“I think down the track it’s probably something I’ll look back on when I’m in tough situations again.”

Australia’s batting line-up looks considerably different with Paine at No.7, a steadying influence on proceedings where his predecessors Adam Gilchrist and Brad Haddin have been giddying ones.

Given the recent tendency for the Australian middle order to be fragile, Paine offers fewer shots than Haddin but a greater ability to stem a tide that is flowing towards the opposition.

It is unlikely Haddin could have eked out the runs that Paine did on day two of the Test, and less likely still that he would have been able to collect them in his favoured manner without giving up his wicket along the way.

With aggressors fore and aft of him, Paine can play as the scenario dictates, thanks to a technique honed on the sporting Bellerive Oval yet also capable of adapting to spin.

It helps to have the assistance of an in-form Mitchell Johnson, who felt free to swing cleanly with the reliable sight of Paine at the other end.

“Mitch is a bit underrated with the bat, when he’s in good form he’s a batsman, and he scores his runs very quickly,” said Paine.

“So he takes the pressure off me, puts the bowlers under pressure and we both get more balls to score off, so he’s good to bat with.”

Should he get the nod to play, the leg-spinning allrounder Steve Smith is made of similar stuff, using his excellent eye to cuff rapid runs, provided he has an able partner.

Their aggression relieves some of the imperative for Paine to be a high octane batsman, and so does Australia’s newfound status as a team of battlers.

When they enjoyed a more dominant position, Gilchrist and Haddin were the cavalry, chasing a foe in retreat or outflanking them if things became awkward.

Now that the Australians are a lesser combination, consigned to the limitations of trench warfare, Paine has proven himself a sturdy footsoldier.

His potential value to the Ashes campaign should not be underestimated.