Tim Paine unperturbed regarding playing sans spectators: The Australian captain has laid emphasis on executing one’s skills better on the ground.
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Australia Test captain Tim Paine has eulogized about rookie all-rounder Cameron Green. Speaking from personal experience of playing against Western Australian all-rounder, Paine hailed the 21-year old player without wanting to put “too much” pressure on him.
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, but I think all Australian cricket fans can get very excited about the prospect of Cam [Cameron] Green. I’ve played a few Shield games against him and the first one all the senior guys noticed him bowling first and we thought ‘Geez! He’s a bit quicker and a bit better than I thought he’d be’ and all the young blokes are saying ‘just wait until you see him bat’, and we thought ‘there’s no way he’s going to be able to bat like he bowls’ and then he came out and hit a hundred,” Paine was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Batting at No. 5 in this year’s Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania in Hobart in February, Green had scored 158* and 45 across two innings to allure Paine’s attention. Having kept wickets for nearly 130 overs whilst Green was batting in the middle, Paine sounded assured of Green’s ability with the bat.
“He’s an exceptional talent. Certainly playing against him he was really impressive out in the middle, looked like he was in complete control of his game and really knew what he was trying to do, and to see him moving around the crease, there were a couple of little things I noticed when I was keeping against him where I thought ‘he’s pretty impressive’, not only is he talented, but he looks like he really knows what he’s doing,” Paine added.
Tim Paine unperturbed regarding playing sans spectators against India
Green, who might be handed a Test debut this summer, will play under Paine in his maiden Test match. Being asked about the status of allowing spectators during the international summer later this year, Paine hoped to play in front of packed stadiums but mentioned that nothing can be confirmed too soon.
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“We are hopeful that everywhere we play, come summer time, we’ll be able to have crowds. How big though, we don’t know obviously. It’s a very difficult question to answer because there is so much changing week to week, day to day… that three to four months down the line, we just don’t know what it’s going to look like.
“Certainly from a player’s point of view, we want to be playing in front of big crowds.. At the best venues and a big day like Boxing Day is something that everyone looks forward to and a big part of that is playing at the MCG,” Paine said.
While Australia will play their first Test against Afghanistan in November, it will be followed by a high-profile series against India. Paine, who led Australia to their first-ever Test series defeat against India the last time they visited around, sounded unperturbed in case of playing behind closed doors.
“I don’t think it [no crowd] should affect anyone. Once you go out there, it very quickly narrows down to what’s happening on the pitch. Most players tend to forget the crowd once they’re in the heat of the battle. So crowd or no crowd, it’ll all boil down to performing and executing your skills better,” the 35-year old further said.
Other than Paine, former Australia batsman Matthew Hayden, all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, fast bowler Pat Cummins and batsmen Usman Khawaja and Matthew Wade, veteran India spinner Harbhajan Singh, Pakistan batsman Imam-ul-Haq, veteran New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor and veteran England seamer James Anderson have all been vocal about playing top-level cricket without spectators.
