Former England captain and commentator Kevin Pietersen has criticized Tim Paine’s captaincy after Australia suffered an embarrassing 1-2 Test series loss to a second-string Indian team recently, saying “the Tasmanian isn’t an Australia captain” and he would “never made him captain”.
He further pointed out the fact that the “Australians don’t like to lose” and claimed that Cricket Australia will soon be looking to replace Paine with someone else after shocking home Test series loss to India since the wicketkeeper-batsman has never been up to the mark.
During the third Test in Sydney, Paine threatened R Ashwin about Australia’s Gabba record, but the Indian cricket team breached their fortress and won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 with a remarkable 3-wicket win at The Gabba, Brisbane on Tuesday (January 19).
Saying he never rated Paine as a good enough player, Pietersen feels the current Australia captain wouldn’t get another chance to lead the country in Test cricket while claiming the knives will be out for a few members of the hosts’ squad that loss home series to India.
Pietersen wrote in Betway: “Australians don’t like to lose and the knives will be out for a few members of that team after this defeat. We heard Tim Paine tell Ravichandran Ashwin that he “can’t wait to get you to the Gabba” – well they’ve been whacked at the Gabba, so where are they going to go now?”
The former batsman further added, “I believe that Cricket Australia will soon be looking for a new captain – Paine has never, ever been up to it. He got chucked into that position when Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft got caught up in the sandpaper controversy, but from my perspective, having played against him and watched him, he’s not an Australia captain.”
He signed off, “He’s just not a good enough player, apart from anything else. I would never have made him captain in the first place, and he’s probably never going to lead them into another Test match.”
(With News18 Inputs)
