“He felt as an opposition captain that they had them”: When Michael Vaughan became Tim Paine’s inspiration during Australia’s Test series vs Pakistan in 2018

When Michael Vaughan became Tim Paine’s inspiration after Australia managed a hard-fought draw against Pakistan during their 2018 tour. 

Former Australia skipper and wicketkeeper-batter Tim Paine’s career is a consummate example of what topsy-turvy days are all about in one’s life.

For someone who saw a career rejuvenation by returning to his country’s national side after a 7-year absence, to then going on to become the side’s captain a year later, there couldn’t have been a better comeback story for someone who was considering retirement from his Cricketing career.

But, all it took was a sexting scandal revelation to hit the headlines and to snatch all of it away from Tim Paine, as if someone had woken him up from a deep slumber to find himself back yet again to the year whence he was considering his retirement.

However, while he was only the 46th person to lead an ever-competitive Australian Cricket team, he was part of some moments for which he should still be proud of. One such, was when he spent 220 minutes on the Dubai pitch to play a 194-ball knock of 61 runs to help his team eke out a Draw from the jaws of defeat.

Michael Vaughan became Tim Paine’s inspiration

Needing 462 runs to win, Paine came up with a marathon knock as the Australia Test captain, to Draw the first Test match against Pakistan in Dubai in 2018.

Rather than getting all buoyed up with a sense of immense pride and accomplishment on earning a Draw, the Aussie skipper, while crediting a major part of it to former England skipper Michael Vaughan, soaked it all in with humility to remind himself that his side still did not manage to win the Test.

Post the knock, and upon seeing his teammates getting all pumped up with excitement and happiness, Paine gestured his fellow mates to calm down as the job wasn’t done yet.

Later, the Tasmanian wicketkeeper explained how his gesture had a bit to do with Michael Vaughan’s reflections on the third Test of the famous 2005 Ashes series in which a Ricky Ponting century helped Australia eke out a near similar kind of a Draw against England.

“A draw is a draw and we’re here to win”-Tim Paine

Explaining how he drew inspiration from Vaughan, Paine exclaimed, “Just when I saw a little bit of it [the celebrations] spilling out the door, I think it was the Forged In Fire documentary we watched last year during the Ashes, and Michael Vaughan said after one of the Tests that he felt as an opposition captain that they had them when he saw them celebrating a draw”.

“I’ve seen that myself before. I think we were clearly pretty excited by what we’ve been able to achieve because it doesn’t happen too much, but you’ve got to keep a bit of perspective on it and realize that we had been outplayed particularly over the first few days.

“And while it was great we did fight back, a draw is a draw and we’re here to win.”

Tim Paine, however, lost the second and the final Test match by 373 run to lose the series 0-1.