Australia captain Tim Paine said Sunil Gavaskar’s critical assessment of his leadership doesn’t bother him one bit.
On the last day of the Sydney Test, Paine tried to unsettle Ashwin Ravichandran by sledging the Indian spinner and Gavaskar said it unbecoming of national team captain to behave like that.
“Tim Paine was more interested in talking to the batsman rather than making his field placing and bowling changes. So I won’t be surprised if there is a change in the Australian captaincy after the series is over,” Gavaskar said.
Paine dropped three catches during the match.
Asked if he had heard about Gavaskar’s comments. Paine said: “I had, but I am not going to go into it and get my back and forth with Sunny Gavaskar, I think I am not going to win that.”
“He is entitled to his opinion. It doesn’t affect us one iota. It is adding to the Test match, which is great. So Sunny can keep saying what he wants to say at the end of the day, it is absolutely nothing to do with it.”
Paine has already publicly apologised for crossing the line and said that from now on, he would like to play the way he knows and that’s doing his job with a smile on the his face.
“Throughout my career, I have done a pretty good job of being relaxed 99 percent of the times. That’s when I have played my best cricket. Other day, I thought I got caught up in the moment.
“What I have been good at it is able to step back and have a look around the crowd and realise you are captaining your country in a Test match, something I have always dreamt of. Obviously, I am going to compete very hard and I am going to win as much as anyone and I would like to competitive,” said the 36-year-old, whose own place in the team will be under scanner if they don’t win the series.
Asked if he would continue the banter after what happened in Sydney, he said: “I will be myself. Don’t know how many Tests I have played but I have gone about in a pretty consistent fashion. Other day, it was a blip on the radar.”
Paine said that he wouldn’t still mind a light-hearted banter.
“I have copped that on the chin and look to come out and play competitive cricket, as I always do. There is a bit of banter that I always do but be aware of the stump mic and be a bit more respectful of the umpires, officials and players,” the skipper added.
With PTI Inputs