Tim Paine gets booed at the post match presentation after Australia lose at Gabba

A month ago, Tim Paine was a leader that the Australians believed in. He had scored a magnificent fifty in the day-night Test at Adelaide. He made sure that his batting unit didn’t fall like a pack of cards. Then, he led his team to a victory humiliating the Indians by bowling them out for 36. He had the pleasure of being the Australian captain, often referred to as the second most important person in the country after the Prime Minister.

A month later, Paine had his head down as his team walked back to the change room having suffered a series defeat against a depleted Indian team. During the post-match presentation, as Paine started to speak, he understood how a month has changed the Australian crowds’ perception of him. He was being booed by his own crowd at the Gabba in Brisbane. The Aussie captain praised the opposition for performing the way they did and also congratulated them on the victory. 

“We were here to win the series, but we have just been outplayed by a disciplined and tough Indian side who fully deserve the series win. We have to look back over a lot of things, and we’ll go through it as a group, and we have been outplayed by a better side this series,” Paine said in the post-match conference.  

Tim Paine’s captaincy had first come to the scanner after the Aussies failed to bowl out the Indians in 131 overs that were being played in the fourth inning of the Sydney Test. The wicketkeeper had also dropped three important catches. He also had a bit of a verbal altercation with the Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, which was heard over the stump mic and not taken nicely by many fans. 

India script historic series win

The Indian team was set a target of 328 runs to chase in the fourth innings of the Gabba Test. Shubman Gill’s 91-run knock had set up the chase beautifully, while Chetestwar Pujara had battled through the day to carry and take the match deep into the final session. Rishabh Pant then took charge and helped India to an unlikely and historic win by three wickets. With that, India clinched the series 2-1 and also broke Australia’s unbeaten record of 32 years at the Gabba in Brisbane.