Tim Paine stepped down as Australia Test captain after his sexting scandal became public.
Paine, who took over as Australia captain in 2018 after the ball-tampering scandal, stepped down from the role after sexually explicit text messages he sent to a female former colleague at Cricket Tasmania in 2017 was leaked to the media.
"I think inevitably it will (be a distraction). Yes, he's made a huge call for himself, for Australian cricket, and for the betterment of the Australian cricket team. But it's not going to go away. We're only a few weeks out from the first Test it will bubble along.
As much as we would all love to see it go away and there comes a point where it's never talked about, it's inevitable that it's going to be there. If he plays in Brisbane (for the first Test), the rest of the group and everyone needs to move on and do the best they can to forget about it and knuckle down,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.
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"Unfortunately for Tim, he's going to get asked about it everywhere he goes. Whenever you make mistakes and you've got to front up in front of the cricket-loving public, you have some doubts in the back of your mind for a period of time,” Ponting said.
Furthermore, Ricky Ponting has picked josh Inglis to replace Tim Paine as the wicketkeeper of the Australian team. He also named Alex Carey as a potential replacement as well.
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"If he (Paine) plays this series and he finishes at the end of the series, they might look at a younger guy. If he's not picked for Brisbane they might think about someone who's a bit more experienced, being an Ashes series. If Paine doesn't play in Brisbane, the obvious one is Alex Carey. If Paine does play the Ashes series, they might look at someone like Inglis post this summer.
I'm on record saying I love Inglis I think he's going to be a really good cricketer for Australia for a long time in whatever format they pick him in first, whether it's T20s, one-dayers or Test cricket. Speaking to Brad Haddin and even 'Painey' they really rate his keeping, they talk really highly of it,” Ponting added.