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After witnessing the epic Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, the cricket fans are now eagerly waiting for India versus Australia Test series which begins from December 17 in South Australia’s cosmopolitan coastal capital Adelaide.
The first Test of the four-match series will be a Day-Night affair while the second game shall be a Boxing Day Test. The third and fourth Test will take place in the month of January next year.
Meanwhile, Aussie fans have started wondering whether the mainstay batsman of Australia Steve Smith would lead the Test team in the near future? This is perhaps the major question since his comeback to the international arena.
Smith, who attended a 12-month ban due to ball-tampering scandal, made his return to top-level cricket in the 2019 World Cup. Despite that, he is yet to arrive as captain of the Australian cricket team.
Now, for the first time since Smith’s comeback, Cricket Australia (CA) has opened up on his future as Test captain. The board has made it clear that there is no discussion regarding such has taken place, and Smith will have to wait even if Tim Paine leaves captaincy.
The reason behind this is that Australia have two vice-captains in the longest format. Though, for the India series, the selectors have only retained Pat Cummins.
“All I can answer to that one is that discussion hasn’t been had yet. That’s difficult to say, he will obviously be – probably – a contender but whether we go down that path or not depends on when that arises,” said Australia’s chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns as quoted by Times Now.
Next Ashes might decide Paine’s future as Aussie skipper
According to some cricket experts, it is expected that Paine’s future as the Test captain is likely to be decided after Ashes 2021/22, which will happen in Australia.
So far, Aussie have enjoyed quite a few success under Paine’s leadership. The 35-year-old has led Australia in retaining the Ashes in 2019. Under his captaincy, Australia have also registered series wins over Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand.
Interestingly, both Smith and Paine had made their Test debuts together – against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010. While Smith became a backbone of the team after a few years, Paine was dropped in the same year. But, the Tasmanian made a comeback for Ashes 2017 as a wicketkeeper-batsman, and since then he has been a regular part of the red-ball squad.
