Australian candidates for captaincy: Who is the best to succeed Tim Pain?

As predicted by Tim Paine his shocking resignation on Friday over a sexting scandal, Australian cricket has been chasing a new test captain less than a month since the start of the Ashes series.

Telegraph Sport runs a rule over candidates to replace Pain in one of the toughest roles in the sport.

Pat Cummins

The current Testa vice-captain is the first to replace Pain, and there are several good reasons to assume he will be the leader in Australia in Brisbane.

The 28-year-old Cummins is well established as the best fast bowler in the world and is guaranteed a start in the Australian first selection XI, not least because he is also able to lower the ranking to 8 with useful matches.

His character also seems very suitable for the job, which is often described as the second most important role in Australia after the Prime Minister. He is not an archetypal Australian snipe and is unlikely to be caught in sledding quarrels, despite being a fierce competitor on the pitch.

When asked earlier this year if he cultivates captaincy ambitions with his country, he replied: “Absolutely. I don’t have much experience at all at the moment, just a few warm-ups in England and besides, Under -16s is cricket when I last captain. So that it is definitely something that will be more on the radar. “

The downside is that fast bowlers rarely get captain roles, simply because they are rarely available for every game – in Australia the bowler didn’t have a lead on his side from Richie Benaud in the 1960s, and he was a spinner.

Australia had hoped to replace their huge number of fast bowlers in Ash: this will be much harder if Cummins is captain.

Steve Smith

Without context, it would not be wise for Smith to replace Paine: he is the first name on the list of the Australian team, one of the greatest players of all time, who regularly terrorizes England and is very fond of the wardrobe.

The catch, of course, is its history. Smith, 32, served as captain for three years before being forced to resign in disgrace. for a role in the ‘Sandpaper-gate’ affair, when it was found that he, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner were involved in a conspiracy to play ball in a 2018 test match against South Africa.

Smith, whose tear-jerking press conference became one of the decisive images of the crisis after returning from Sydney airport, was banned for a year because of the widespread condemnation of his behavior, which reached the very top of the Australian government.

Part of his sentence was that he was banned from leading any team for two years, so it seemed inconceivable that he could be considered ready to take on the role so soon after one of the most traumatic episodes in Australian sports history.

The man himself, however, said he was willing to take on the role again if offered.

“I definitely had a lot of time to think about it, and I guess I’ve now gotten to the point where, if the opportunity came up again, I’d really like to,” Smith said recently.

“If that was what Cricket Australia wanted and it was what was best for the team at the time, I would definitely be interested in that, that’s for sure. I’ll always have to live with Cape Town, whether or not I lead again or not. It’s always there. “

Marnus Labuschagne

The best Australian racket after Smith will also definitely play in every test after he started his international career with turbocharging.

Although his debut was against Pakistan in 2018, Labuschagne only solidified his place on the side in 2019 after being used as a concussion substitute for Smith in the Lord’s Ashes Test in 2019, but his performance there – he reached half century – quickly established. his credentials and has been a fixture on the team ever since.

Labuschagne’s twitching and restless style on the fold owes Smith, and anyone who has watched Amazon’s documentary series The Test, which went behind the scenes with the Australian side, will notice the debt he owes to the former captain.

No one doubts Labuschagne’s thoughtfulness for the game or his character and has experience with the captain of the age group teams in his country, Queensland.

Paine himself backed his long-held credentials to succeed him only in June. “I think he would be a good (leader),” Paine said. “Marnus is a great thinker of the game. He is a good team man, he has so much enthusiasm for his team and the game.

“In terms of improving our cricket team and developing Marnus, I think we’ll definitely see him take a step forward in the next few years.”

Nevertheless, the task of leading Australia is difficult and there is a concern that the 27-year-old has simply not been ready for this task for just three years in his international career and that his promotion would negatively affect his bat. Australia, however, desperately needs a run by Smith and Labuschagne to protect an otherwise neutral lineup.