Australia vs Pakistan: Had to Undergo Voting Procedure To Retain Captaincy, Reveals Tim Paine

Tim Paine will be leading a depleted Australian side having the services of Josh Hazlewood and Mitch Marsh as his deputy.

Australia will be taking on Pakistan in the two-Test series beginning October 7 in UAE. Tim Paine will be leading a depleted Australian side having the services of Josh Hazlewood and Mitch Marsh as his deputy.

Paine has now revealed that the team management went through a voting procedure to decide the leaders in which he also had to go “back into the pool”. According to cricket.com.au,  all the squad members were asked to vote to decide the leadership role and the top six contenders were asked to present their case in front of the final panel.

Paine, who was appointed as Australia Test skipper after Cricket Australia removed Steve Smith from captaincy earlier this year in the aftermath of the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal, insisted the process was not a box-ticker.

“I came across the captaincy in not ideal circumstances so to go back into the pool and to be voted back up by my peers was great,” Paine said. “It means a lot to all three of us that we’ve been voted in by our peers. It was really important to have the player buy-in. Everyone went through that process, myself included. I think it was good for the players to be able to voice their opinion and have a say in who leads them,” he added.

On being questioned if he would have left the role if not voted back, the batsman said, “It probably wouldn’t have been my call. We took it very seriously and the players had their say, then there was a (presentation) process after that as well.”

Squads: 

Australia: Tim Paine (c), Ashton Agar, Brendan Doggett, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc

Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Azhar Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin, Yasir Shah, Shadab Khan, Bilal Asif, Mohammad Abbas, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, Faheem Ashraf, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan

Schedule

Sep 29 – Oct 2: Tour match v Pak A, Dubai

Oct 7-11: First Test, Dubai

Oct 16-20: Second Test, Abu Dhabi