Tim Paine loves watching bitter rival England lose any series, but the former Australia captain knows what it is like to be beaten by an Indian ‘B’ team in Test cricket.
No one knows what it feels like to lose to a second-string Indian side better than Paine, who was the Australian captain during the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where India claimed a famous 2-1 series win away from home.
Devoid of then captain Virat Kohli, who flew back home after the first Test, Rohit Sharma, who was ruled out of the first two games, pacers Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, who were out with injuries, and no Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah, who were unavailable for the final Test in Gabba, Ajinkya Rahane led a pack of spirited youngsters to hand India a memorable series victory.
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“I know what it’s like to be beaten by an Indian B team. Unfortunately, it happened to us on our home soil.
“But yes, some huge names out for India, which should have certainly helped the English,” said speaking to another former Australia captain Brad Haddin, on the ‘Around the Wicket’ podcast.
Playing without the likes of Kohli, Shami, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, India inflicted a 4-1 series defeat on England after winning the Dharamsala Test by an innings and 64 runs on Saturday.
It is England’s first series loss under coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Ben Stokes.
“I thoroughly enjoy watching England play the game, I love the way they are going about it. I love watching them lose. Don’t get me wrong, but they are entertaining and exciting,” Paine added.
The former wicketkeeper batter had previously stirred a major controversy when he criticised Jonny Bairstow after the stumping controversy during the 2023 Ashes series and labelled England skipper Ben Stokes as “selfish” after reversing his decision to retire from ODIs before the 2023 World Cup.
Haddin, too, agreed that England was undone by an Indian ‘B’ team in the ongoing series.
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“But they have been playing against the Indian B team because there has been no Kohli, no Shami, Bumrah got rested last Test, KL Rahul is out, and Rishabh Pant is still making his way back from that accident,” said Haddin.
The former Australia stumper, however, lauded India’s bench strength and had words of appreciation for the younger generation, who shone brightly in the ongoing series.
“They are not their strongest team, but it just goes to show that the depth in Indian cricket is huge because there are some big names coming into this next era of Indian cricket.
“(Yashasvi) Jaiswal is leading the charge; young (Dhruv) Jurel was magnificent in the last Test as well. So India is looking very strong,” Haddin said
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