My wife got a million new Indian followers after 'best babysitter' pic with Rishabh Pant, she panicked: Tim Paine

Banters and sledging have always been an integral part of India-Australia rivalry and when Virat Kohli & his men toured down under last year, a number of suck notable incidents took place. But the banter between Tim Paine and Rishabh Pant was the best of the lot as both the wicketkeepers tried their best to get under the skin of each other. And it led to the famous ‘babysitter’ episode. Rather the hilarious banter went on another level when the Aussie captain’s wife Bonnie Paine uploaded a picture with Pant and the kids.

The incident took place during the third Test of the four-match Test series.  Seeing Rishabh Pant new to the crease, Tim Paine sensed an opportunity and tried to unsettle him. The wicketkeeper teased Pant over MS Dhoni’s inclusion back in the T20I side and his exclusion, telling him they could use him at Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League. Paine had then gone on to ask Pant if he could babysit his kids.

“Tell you what big MS is back in the one-day squad. Should get this bloke down to Hurricanes.. They need a batter. Fancy that extend your Aussie holiday, beautiful town Hobart too… get him a water front apartment. Have him over for dinner. Do you babysit? I can take my wife to the movies while you watch the kids,” Paine had said during the hilarious incident.

Moreover, when Tim Paine’s wife posted a picture on Instagram with Rishabh Pant holding their kids, it went viral like anything. Within no time, Bonnie Paine’s followers increased multifold.

Tim Paine to @RishabPant777 at Boxing Day Test: "You babysit? I'll take the wife to the movies one night, you'll look after the kids?"

*Challenge accepted!* 👶

(📸 Mrs Bonnie Paine) pic.twitter.com/QkMg4DCyDT

— ICC (@ICC) January 1, 2019

I don’t think she was watching

Tim Paine revealed that his wife wasn’t even aware of the babysitting banter as she wasn’t watching the Test match. She got to know about the same through social media and then her picture with Rishabh Pant went viral. “I don’t think she was watching.

“Then I think she had got a bit of it through her Instagram and then she put up that photo on and as it happens, and as it’s happened, she had a million new Indian followers the next day so she panicked a little bit that it was on the news,” Paine was quoted as saying by news.com.au.

The reason for the sledging

Tim Paine also revealed what paved the way for that exchange. The Australia skipper said that while sledging did not make much of an impact on Pant, he wanted to make the left-hander batsman play a lose shot. “Geez we were bored. Could not get a wicket,” Tim Paine said on air.

“Well Rick (Ponting) knows him quite well — one, he’s very very good, but two, we found out early in that series that sledging him was a waste of time. It just didn’t bother him, but what we found was that you could get a real lapse of concentration out of him so we went a bit that way. So I just tried to put him off and talk rubbish to try and get him involved because he was likely to play a poor shot at time. But he’s a seriously talented player,” he added.