Australia secured a close victory against New Zealand in the second Test match in Christchurch. Despite a shaky start at 80/5, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, and Pat Cummins staged a remarkable comeback to chase down 279 runs.

Paine’s critique on Australia’s batting form

However, former Australia captain Tim Paine expressed dissatisfaction with the team’s performance despite the series sweep against New Zealand. He said, “I’m disappointed. We’re a better team than them (New Zealand) and it was the same against the West Indies, there seems to be a bit of a pattern. Not scoring enough runsâ€æ you can’t always believe what they’re telling you but the leadership and coaching and captain and selectors say, ‘we have no concerns with our batters’. Well, I do now.”

Paine highlights worries about facing England and India

Paine criticized the inconsistency of the top-order batsmen, pointing out their struggles since the West Indies Test series. He strongly questioned the team’s ability to compete against England and India later in 2024, especially with concerns regarding the form of players like Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, and Marnus Labuschagne. He added, “There are more questions coming out of the last three or four Tests than answers, and we need to find some answers pretty quickly.” 

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Paine particularly highlighted worries about facing India’s formidable fast bowling lineup featuring Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. He said some more in this and added, “We might not beat New Zealand, we’ve lost a Test to West Indies, we wouldn’t beat England if they were playing well with a full-strength sideâ€æ India are certainly going to trouble us with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, so there are some concerns.” 

Despite Australia’s rise to the second spot in the World Test Championship standings, with 8 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw from 12 matches, Paine emphasized the need for improvement to maintain competitiveness against top-ranked teams.