India vs Australia: ‘Extremely frustrating’ – Tim Paine opens up on ‘game changing’ DRS call which ruled him out

The Indian bowling attack has been on song in the Border Gavaskar series so far. Despite losing Mohammed Shami to an injury, the visitors managed to bowl Australia out under 200 twice. This has raised a question mark on the Aussie batting order’s intent. Australia batted nearly 200 overs in the Boxing Day Test but were not able to cross the 400 run mark summing up the total of both the innings.

This is highly unusual for a side with a star-studded line-up. And captain Tim Paine shares that the hosts are planning to be more aggressive with the bat. Paine feels that while some players have already made their mind to take the game to the opposition, others are yet to figure out a way to do so. The Australia captain feels that it is all about the confidence to execute when it comes to aggression on the field.

“Yeah, absolutely. That’s the game, isn’t it? It’s all about risk-reward, it’s about being clear. I think everyone’s going to do it differently. Matthew looks like he’s going to sway other guys are going to use that. They can win. Green didn’t attack him (Ashwin). I believe he will, I’ve applied him really nicely. So everyone’s, I think, just got to have their own plan on it. And then have the confidence to go and execute it. I think if anything, we’ve been slightly tentative in committing to exactly how we want to play the spin or the fast bowling when they’re attacking stumps and setting really strong like solitudes,” Paine said during the virtual press conference.

Then the whole game would have changed

Paine was in great touch in the series opener but fell prey to a controversial DRS call in the second innings at the MCG. And the Tasmanian is very upset about the call. Paine feels that had the call gone their favour, the result of the game would have completely different.

“Yeah, extremely frustrating, no doubt about that, (it is a) crucial part of the game. I felt like I’ve been playing pretty well out of this series, and I thought if I could get in a partnership with Graney and add another fifty, hundred, hundred and twenty runs together, then the whole game changes. So to have it finished like that was extremely disappointing. But yeah, that is what it is.“

When asked if he hit the ball or not, Paine said, “I think that was pretty clear from my reaction. And yeah, I thought we had a pretty similar example in the first innings with Pujara on the first ball of day two, which sets a precedent. And then it seemed to change.“

Paine shares that he even talked with the match officials about the same but it ‘wasn’t very productive.’ Paine accuses the third umpire of being hasty while making the call. Had the umpire looked closely from different angles, Paine asserts that their decision would have been different.

“Yeah, I’ve spoken to them. It wasn’t very productive, but I’ve spoken to them and raised. But my only concern my concern yesterday was not with the technology, was with the precedent that was set in the first innings. And the fact I just think the decision was made too quickly. And he didn’t look at enough replays to see the full evidence that there was probably a gap between bat and ball. The disturbance itself had started before it went past my bat and then it’s finished again. So it was just lots of things that that didn’t add up for me. Also some photos of it, all sorts of things. I just don’t think he took the time to look at the evidence. As I said, the technology itself,” he signs off.

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