Why would you drop the Captain mid-series when they've secured the Ashes? And who leads in his place? The guy with probably the best chance of leading Australia was just dropped in Head. Lyon maybe? The rest of the squad seem to be battling their own form demons with the burden of leadership.
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You are probably right, but he doesn't justify his place in the team with how he has performed. Wade is a wicket keeper as well and could cover that role plus Carey is waiting in the wings. I have no idea who could take over the Captaincy. Head wouldn't be a good choice as he hasn't guaranteed his slot in the team either.
Without looking at specific series numbers, I don't think Paine has performed any worse than anyone else short of Smith (who has been nothing short of freakish), and perhaps Labuchagne. I think when it comes to wicketkeepers cricket fans were spoiled by the likes of Gilchrist who set a ridiculously high standard.
By all accounts, Paine has been fantastic for the Team culture after the sandpaper incident, and subsequent CA internal review though - though the fact Warner (reportedly a toxic personality in the dressing room) received a central CA contract renewal the moment his ban finished suggests that review was little more than lip service.
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That’s probably a fair comment. Paine hasn’t been great but besides a couple of stand out performances on either side the batting in this series has been atrocious. The bigger concern is that Australia had several good opportunities to seal an outright victory in this series which they missed. It wasn’t all Paine’s fault but some of his decision making has been below the standards you’d expect from the Australian Test captain
Yeah, there were a few decisions that he would probably change with the benefit of hindsight, though I'm not convinced that bowling first in this last test was entirely the wrong call.
Our openers have failed to get the job done all season, and had the Australians held their chances in the field, Paine may have instead been lauded for his bold decision rather than criticised.
Having watched a lot of cricket at the Oval over the years (it’s my home ground) the % call is to bat first. I’m not really sure what Paine and Langer saw in that pitch to make them think they should buck the trend and England really should have made 400 on that wicket. Yeah, the Aussies missed some chances but the same could be said of both teams in every game.
I believe he got 13 DRS decisions wrong in a row.