Cricket Update: Australian wicket-keeper Haddin’s Pain, seems to Paine’s Gain in the upcoming test match against Pakistan
The Australians are set to take on http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 in the opening test match of the two match series at the home of cricket Lords in London on Tuesday.
The men from down under are on a winning spree in the test format against the Asians having won 12 test matches on the bounce against them a run that started in Brisbane in 1999.
The Australian team would be with out regular test wicket-keeper Brad Haddin, who is not playing in the series due to an injury and has been replaced by Tim Paine, who would be making his test debut at Lords.
The 25 year old who has featured in 23 ODI’s and three T20 matches for his country is elated at the opportunity and is looking forward to grabbing the opportunity by both hands.
"I'm absolutely thrilled to be given the opportunity to play Test cricket," Paine said. "It's a pretty rare thing for a wicketkeeper. I realise I'm very fortunate, to get it before you normally would. It's definitely a bit of an audition, if you can perform well in these two Tests, it puts me clearly as number two going down the track and if anything happens to Brad or he's rested or when he retires, performing well in these Tests will hold me in good stead."
Meanwhile there is one major worry for Paine, who has not handled the Duke Ball much at all, in fact just once in a first class game and the red ball would be brought in use for the two match neutral series.
During a practice match against Derbyshire County, Paine took one catch and dropped one, "To have my first catch with the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Duke-c54717 Ball was good," the Tasmanian added that "To get that away and not cop one on the end of my fingers was good. It's a slightly different ball. It feels a little bit heavier when you catch it, but apart from that, a red ball's a red ball”.
Another worry is the lack of experience of playing in a four day match at the headquarters of cricket at Lords, where the traditional slope is difficult to handle for wicket-keepers playing there for the first time.
However, Paine claims that he has had a word with team coach Tim Nielsen about the ball and the slope at Lords and has a plan up his sleeve before the start of the series.
The Tasmanian is relaxed before the big day in his career, and claims he did not think that he will win a test cap so early in his international career. One must keep in mind the quality of Australian keepers in recent years, with one http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Gilchrist-c918 donning the gloves for almost a decade and raising the bar to a new level altogether.
He added that he will be trying to keep things simple with the bat in his hand and would focus on watching the ball and staying relaxed.
Paine feels that he is batting reasonably well, and was in good nick in the five match one-day series against the Englishmen that his team lost narrowly 2-3.
He is confident that despite getting out early in some of the matches, he was confident with his batting touch.
Another advantage he feels that in Test cricket one can spend enough time at the batting crease with out having to worry too much with scoring quick runs.
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