Tim Paine heaps praise on 'batting tragic' Marnus Labuschagne
Australia captain Tim Paine recently revealed how a piece of simple advice from fellow batsman Marnus Labuschagne helped the former essay the match-winning knock in the first Test against India.
Tim Paine top-scored for Australia with 73 runs in the first innings of the Adelaide Test on a pitch which saw the rest of the batsmen struggle. On the back of his half-century, Australia ensured that India did not run away with a sizeable lead.
Post the game-changing knock, Paine recollected the changes he made to his grip that brought about his success.
“I changed where I was holding the bat — where my hands were in the set-up — and (a) few other little things. I only decided to do it three or four days before the game so I had to get used to it. The first time I did it was the South Australian game and I got a hundred. There haven’t been too many of them in my career, so I was pumped,” Paine wrote in The Australian.
Tim Paine also lauded Labuschagne’s lesser-known talent of being a handy batting coach, with the latter having guided young children at his club in Brisbane.
“In the past 18 months, we learned how good Marnus Labuschagne is as a batsman and in recent months, I have discovered just how good he is as a batting coach. He is obviously a batting tragic, but he also spends a lot of time coaching kids at his club in Brisbane and I noticed last year he was always good at explaining why he was doing something or why something would work.”
Also read: 'It weakens them and gives us an advantage'
‘Lower-order batsmen are handy with the bat, nothing wrong in bowling bouncers’: Tim Paine
Tim Paine further shed light on how the modern lower-order batsman are more than handy with the bat, and using the bouncer ploy against them is not a bad idea.
“I hear there is talk about not bowling bouncers to the tail, but tailenders are not what they used to be. Most are handy with a bat and most love batting. If you watch, you’ll notice it is not always the short ball that gets them out. It’s often used when they slog a few so we can get them a bit hesitant. We will keep doing it.”
Tim Paine will once again be seen in action when Australia take on India in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Also read: 'You can have a go at the Indians, but you would rather give credit to the Australian bowlers'