India will find Australia a different proposition next year, reckons Tim Paine
Australian skipper Tim Paine was extremely proud of his boys the way they performed in the summer by clean sweeping Pakistan and New Zealand and winning all five Tests ruthlessly. Australia have now reached within 64 points of India who sit pretty at the top of the ICC Test Championship table.
Paine understood that the series versus India next summer will be huge in the context of the points table. Last summer too India had visited a relatively depleted Australian side without David Warner and Steve Smith and won their first-ever series Down Under. However, with the return of the two senior pros along with Marnus Labuschagne being a revelation at number three, Paine felt that India's next tour will not be the same as it was last time around. In an interview, Paine was quoted as saying by TOI,
"We're certainly a different side than what they (India) played against last year."
He then went on to add,
"There's (also) test championship points at stake and I think both India and Australia are eyeing off that final so every point is going to be critical. If we can continue our upward trend, you're potentially talking about the top two teams in the world so it's going to be an awesome series."
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India had won the series 2-1 which also said a lot about the nature of the series. Australia had their moments too, like the narrow 31-run loss at Adelaide could have gone either way if they would have batted well. Thus, Paine will be sure that his men will be more careful about taking up the responsibility and play to their defined role when such tight situations occur in future. He said,
"I think there were probably periods in the test series against India we should have capitalised on, but through wanting it too much, or trying too hard, or putting too much pressure on ourselves, we let it slip."
He then concluded by sayin,
"When those big moments come now, we just focus on executing our roles."