Tim Paine likely to miss Australia's pre-season camp of the Pakistan tour

Australia will tour the UAE next month for a complete series against Pakistan.

Tim Paine | Getty Images

Australian skipper Tim Paine is likely to miss the pre-season camp for the Pakistan Test series to be held in September in Brisbane, as he wants to stay at home, awaiting the birth of his second child.

However, the wicketkeeper-batsman is confident of leading Australia in the upcoming two-match Test series against Pakistan, starting from 7th October in the UAE.

Paine told Fairfax Media on Monday (September 3), “The plan is for me to stay home, get them home and settled in and then I'll leave from here. I should be okay. We are hoping in the next 10 days we will probably have him (baby boy). That will give me a week at home before I head off after that.”

The 33-year-old is yet to taste success as captain since taking over the captaincy from Steve Smith following the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. At the moment, Australia is working hard to improve their record in Asian conditions and Paine is confident of Australia's chances in the Pakistan series.

Besides the suspended trio of Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, Australia will also be without the services of Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, who are recovering from injuries,  but Paine isn't bothered about the team composition ahead of his first full series as Test captain.

He signed off by saying, “It will be great to be back out playing. It's going to be a huge challenge - we haven't had a lot of success playing in the sub-continent. It's not something we are worried about. It's a huge opportunity and great place to start if we can go over there and play well and win a series.”

 
 

By Rashmi Nanda - 04 Sep, 2018

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