Paine concerned about Gambhir’s inability to stay calm under pressure
“Their last two series wins out here they had Ravi Shastri who was fantastic,” Paine said.
Australia skipper Tim Paine, who led the Aussies to a 3-0 whitewash over New Zealand on Monday, feels that the return of David Warner and Steve Smith into the Australian squad has strengthened the batting.
Notably, the Aussies drubbed Kiwis by 279 runs in the third and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, thus concluding with a 3-0 whitewash.
After setting an unrealistic target of 416, Australia bundled out the Black Caps for mere 136 runs on the fourth day of the Test match.
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“Very lucky to be captain of this group. We have a very special group of people. Having Warner and Smith back has strengthened our batting group. The rest of us can learn a lot from them,” Paine was quoted by IANS.
“We are blessed with the guys on the park; (Josh) Hazlewood gets injured and (James) Pattinson can come in and fill for him. The depth, our hunger; we haven’t struggled in the last couple of years to get 20 wickets but we have struggled to get runs. Their return has made us a much more consistent Test side. I think we can still get better,” he added.
Marnus Labuschagne, who impressed with the figures of 215 and 59 in the third Test, became the Player of the Match as well as Player of the Series. Combining the three matches in the series, the right-handed batsman scored 549 runs.
Notably, Australia had won the first two Tests by 296 and 247 runs in Perth and Melbourne, respectively.
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