'Selfish' Tim Paine hopes Steve Smith prefers Ashes over T20 World Cup
A couple of days after Steve Smith opened up about prioritising Test cricket and the Ashes series ahead of the T20 World Cup, Australia Test captain Tim Paine has expressed a ‘selfish’ hope that the team’s star batsman chooses the longest format over the global extravaganza.
Smith has been struggling with a recurrent elbow injury and Paine put his faith behind Smith’s rehabilitation to come good in a very busy year that has a T20 World Cup and an Ashes series line up one after another.
Paine expressed his wish of Smith prolonging his career by five or six years but conceded that it would be a tough task considering his age and busy schedules.
"What's important for me is that he (Smith) is fit to go, whether that's at the T20 World Cup or for the Ashes. Obviously from a selfish point of view, I would love him to be one hundred per cent fit and if that means he misses that (T20 World Cup) tournament, then so be it,” Paine said in a post-match press conference.
“But I think Steve's a professional, he'll know where his body's at and if he doesn't feel like he's right then he'll make the right call. He's the best player in the world and you take the best player of any side out, it creates a bit of a hole so fingers crossed his elbow comes good. He's been dealing with it for a while now and finds a way to get up, but as he gets older it probably gets a bit harder to keep pushing through it.
"So it's important now we've got the time (in the playing schedule) that he takes that time, and tries to get one hundred per cent right, not just for the Ashes but to try and prolong his career for another four, five, six years."
Earlier last week, Smith had expressed his staunch commitment to the longest format and said that he would walk away from standing a chance to get into the T20 World Cup side if it would hamper his chances in the Ashes series.
"There's still a bit of time between now and (the T20 World Cup), and I'm tracking okay at the moment – it's slow, but I'm going okay. I'd love to be part of the World Cup, for sure, but from my point of view, Test cricket, that's my main goal – to be right for the Ashes and try to emulate what I've done in the last few Ashes series I've been involved in,” Smith had told cricket.com.au.
Paine also took note of the tight scheduling Australia’s multi-format players will have to manage in case the side makes it to the final of the World cup and lack of match practice leading up to the all-important Ashes series.
Players such as Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, David Warner could miss out on the only Test against Afghanistan scheduled to start on November 27 in case the side reach the final of the World Cup scheduled to be played on November 14.
Paine reiterated the ‘two huge goals’—winning the T20 World Cup and the Ashes series for Australian cricket this year but conceded that the players will arrive in the longest format without match practice.
However, he exuded confidence in players’ abilities to adapt and said that players have had enough experience of coping with the demands of the longest format from the past and it would not be any different this time.
"We'd like our T20 side to go as deep as they can in the tournament, so if they do it looks like a couple of weeks quarantine when they get home and it will probably be tight to be available for the (Afghanistan) Test match. But our players have come into an Ashes series in England before without any red-ball cricket, and if we have to do that then I think now in the professional era of international cricket guys can cope with it and do it really well.
"Internally and externally, we've been really clear on the two huge goals that are ahead - one of those is the T20 World Cup and the other one's the Ashes - and we want all of our best players on the park for a majority, if not all of those tournaments if we can."
Paine was under immense pressure after losing a home series to India in the last summer and hence the onus will be on him to turn things around in the Ashes series this summer.
