Tim Paine has a batting average of 19 over the past four Australian first class seasons yet, somehow, he is set to be recalled to Test cricket just weeks away from his 33rd birthday.
Media reports emerged late yesterday that wicketkeeper Paine, who was not even picked for Tasmania’s first two Sheffield Shield games, was going to circumvent Australia’s first-class system and vault straight into the Ashes team.
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Paine’s batting form was so dire in recent seasons that he regularly was unable to get a Shield game for Tasmania, despite them being a very weak side in that period.
The Australian Test selectors have made a habit of baffling us all in recent times, like last summer when they bizarrely dumped Callum Ferguson after his debut Test only to randomly pick an out-of-form Nic Maddinson.
The selection of Paine would be just as bewildering given his sole first-class century was scored more than 11 years ago in a match where he played as a specialist opening batsman.
Since then, Paine’s highest first-class score is 98, made for Australia A against a Zimbabwe XI in Harare in July 2011. Perhaps the selectors were swayed by the third highest score of his career – 92 made against India in a Test match in Mohali seven years ago.
Paine had a brief but fruitful four-Test stint in 2010 as a 25-year-old stand-in for incumbent Test gloveman Brad Haddin, who had an injured elbow. Haddin recovered in time to return for the 2010-11 Ashes but in his absence Paine had flourished, making 287 runs at 36 from his four Tests – two in England against Pakistan and two in India.
At that point, in late 2010, Paine looked on track to have a healthy international career and was so highly regarded he was even being spoken of as a potential future Test captain.
He had made 2,359 first-class runs at 31, from 44 matches, and was considered to have significant upside in his batting, while also being a fine gloveman.
Then, just a month after playing the last of his four Tests, Paine suffered a career-changing injury in a hit-and-giggle T20 game for the Australian Cricketers’ Association “All-Stars”.
Paine broke his right index finger and subsequently had half a dozen operations as he had a plate inserted in his finger, only to break it again and for the plate to come loose.
The injury reportedly has caused Paine regular discomfort for the past seven years. While his keeping has remained neat, the expected upside in his batting never materialised and he’s been viewed as a player who was never able to reach his potential.
(Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)
Paine’s first-class career has been in a downward spiral for the past three years during which he frequently has been left out of the Tasmanian Shield side. As it turns out, his omission from the Tasmanian XI in the first two rounds of this Shield season may have helped him earn his shocking reported Test recall.
It allowed him to play for the Cricket Australia XI in their day-night match against England last week, during which Paine made a plucky 52 in the first dig in difficult batting conditions.
When Paine followed that up with 71no for Tasmania against Victoria on Wednesday, after making a duck in the first innings, apparently the Australian selectors had seen enough.
Test incumbent Matt Wade and Ashes keeping hopefuls Peter Nevill and Alex Carey were no match for the appeal of Paine, it seems. If the reports of Paine’s selection are correct, it will be particularly galling for Nevill. Over the past four Shield seasons, Paine has made 480 runs at 18, while Nevill has piled up 1,577 runs at 58, including five tons.
Glovework cannot be the reason for Paine’s selection as he is no better behind the stumps than Nevill – both men are equally solid keepers. How, then, do we even begin to fathom Australian Test cricket’s latest selection farce?
Scott
Guest
A reflective report, now that Paine has made a mockery of these ‘farcical’ comments, would restore my faith in this reporters ability to have some forward thinking vision. Perhaps some praise for the selectors who know more about cricket than a journalist.
JamesH
Roar Guru
He wasn't dropped because of his keeping though. He was dropped for a lack of runs and to give opportunity to younger candidates (given that Tassie are trying to rebuild). The one thing the selectors did clearly state is that they wanted to pick the best gloveman, since no keeper had been convincing with the bat. They believe Paine to be that man. Sure you can debate that point but the general reasoning is sound enough.
qwetzen
Guest
And then there's the possibility that Crane, like Warne in Pomgolia in 1993, isn't showing all his tricks in lead-up games.
Bob Sims
Guest
Don't ever tell me that selectors don't play favourites. This is Marsh's eighth incarnation as a Test batsman. Especially Maxwell, but also Cartwright, Lehmann and Ferguson have every right to feel hard done by. For Australia's sake, I hope he does well, but I expect him to fail again. If so, surely that's gotta be it- Only cats get nine lives!
Bob Sims
Guest
Exactly
Bob Sims
Guest
Perfect summation, James. People don't seem to realise that the door was left ajar for Wade, Carey or Nevill to up the game with their gloves and/or register a decent score with the bat, cut none of them could do it, so they looked further afield and settled on Paine, who is the current T20 keeper, has experienced Test cricket, shows maturity and is quite decent with gloves and bat. I also think that a lot of Roarers are just a little bit miffed because they didn't see this coming and had settled into their respective Wade/ Carey/Nevill camps. Paine will do well.
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
Exactly what I thought. How bad can Paine be?
Broken-hearted Toy
Guest
You only need to follow the Shield to realise how poor the keepers have been bat in hand. And Nevill has been pretty rotten behind the stumps too! The fans should be thankful that Bancrioft hasn't been chosen to keep. He could do it but that's if given time, he's a hard worker and concentrates properly obviously given the number of big tons he's scored.
Andy Hill
Roar Pro
Gold. Best comment of the day. Cheer up folks. At least Wade is no longer in the team.
13th Man
Guest
Sure it's not a lot and I'm not saying it's a great selection, just suggesting that he's done better than any of the other keepers considered for selection. I would've gone with Bancroft as well but the fact is they just don't seem to want him to keep. Paine was the next best option.
Bunney
Roar Rookie
Bob, you are correct to say that none of Wade, Nevill and Carey produced enough runs to warrant their selection. But how do you then jump to the conclusion that Paine is the man? He's done nothing with the bat in the last 6 years! It's a completely illogical leap.
Paul Giles
Guest
I agree it's incredibly tough, I'm a fan of Cartwright. If he had made runs like Bancroft, Weatherald or Lehmann, he would be in the team, same goes for Renshaw and 2 fifties from Maxwell's last 6 FC games seems like it wasn't enough for the selectors. At least we have some genuine batting options these days and the days of the quasi all rounder (M.Marsh, Head, Stoinis and Henriques) are hopefully over.
Rellum
Roar Guru
The Paine selection is probably up there with the worst I have seen, just because of all the hypocrisy, meddling in the Shield and picking a guy to keep who doesn't keep for his State. It doesn't matter why he wasn't keeping, you can't pick a guy who isn't keeping. On the number 6, it just comes back to the reality that we don't have 6 Test quality bats. Some of the older guys making runs might be, Maxi's winter makes him close but for me we really don't have 6 Test bats to pick, let alone more than that.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
This Paine pick is the most shocked I've been by a Test selection since Agar over Lyon in the 1st Ashes Test in 2013. I normally feel very confident with who is in contention for a Test spot, and 36 hours ago I'd have given odds of 30/1 that Paine would get picked.
Rellum
Roar Guru
I don't like to dismiss any FC 50's but I get what you are saying. What gets me is they are saying in one breath the Paine is picked on his keeping, the next they are talking about his form with the two 50's and calling Nevill to tell him he didn't do enough with the bat.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
It's strange that everyone talks about freshening up Test cricket by moving to 4 day Tests, or increasing pink ball matches, yet everyone overlooks the concept of lunch bongs.
@EdJonauskis
Guest
Bongs at lunchtime.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Fair enough Rellum. The point I was intending to make was that, in my opinion, neither of Paine's half centuries was a genuinely impressive knock that would warrant him leapfrogging into the Test team. Whereas you could at least argue that SMarsh's 92 against Starc/Haz/Cummins/Lyon was a high class innings against arguably the world's best bowling attack. Of course, neither player deserved selection.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
"Cartwright didn’t do enough in his 2 tests" Cartwright has only had two innings in Test cricket. Giving a guy just two innings and then dropping him because his 55 runs were not "enough" is incredibly tough.
Jeffrey Dun
Roar Rookie
Fair enough Rellum. It's just that neither Marsh nor Cartwright did much in the recent tests they played (although to be fair, Marsh did bat the best part of a day to save a test match). While Maxwell scored a great test century against India. (How many test centuries have Australian batsmen scored in India in the last 20 or so years?) But is seems Maxwell's test century counts for nothing while Marsh's 90 in Sydney last week has got him the gig. So, he failed in the last test series but gets a good score against NSW and that's enough. He leads a privileged existence and supporters are wondering what he did to deserve it.