Shane Warne advocates bowlers for Australia captain’s role
|| Desk Report ||
Former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne has questioned the credentials of Tim Paine as the captain of Australia. After the respective bans on then-captain Steve Smith and then-vice-captain David Warner, Australia had to appoint Tim Paine as its Test and ODI captain.
And while he might not have had full series as Test captain, he did end up winless against England in his first ODI series as Australia captain. As a result, there have been suggestions that Paine is perhaps not suitable for the role.
Meanwhile, the legendary former leg-spinner questioned whether Paine deserved to be on the side and was affirmative in his belief that the Australian team should be picked based on merit and not surrounding the captain.
"The Australian way is always to pick your best team. There is a lot of talk about that, should Tim Paine be in the side? He is the captain at the moment," he said.
"But we, as Australians, should always pick our best team and then pick your captain and vice-captain from that. I don't think we should just make a captain and then fit a side around him.”
Warne also added that the leadership roles are still very much up for grabs with and also suggested that he is open to the idea of having Paine as the captain if the board think that he is the best person to shoulder the responsibility.
"I think the captain and vice-captain should still be up for grabs. I want us to see us pick the best side. If Tim Paine is in the best side and he is the best guy to be captain, then make him captain."
Warne was once the vice-captain to Steve Waugh’s Australia and is often touted as the best captain Australia never had. He was the last spinner to be in a leadership role with Australia and wants to see the trend be broken by Nathan Lyon.
The former Rajasthan Royals captain was hyped up to the prospect of having Nathan Lyon as the vice-captain as he reads the game well – just like most of the pacers, which is why Warne was Australia to consider pacers for leadership roles.
"I would like to see Nathan Lyon be considered for the vice-captain role. He is a senior player, an experienced player in the side - spinners generally think about the game pretty well," Warne said on Fox Sports.
"Nathan Lyon thinks about the game pretty well, even the big 'quickies' do, in [Mitchell] Starc and [Josh] Hazlewood. [Pat] Cummins is young but why not look at him, either?
"It's not just the batsmen we need to look at [as vice-captain] - and I don't think any of the batsmen have really consolidated themselves. I think they are all up for grabs. I think the allrounder's spot is up for grabs. I think if you are an Australian cricketer at the moment, you are so close to playing cricket for Australia, so the start of the domestic season is so important."
