Tim Paine has the full support of the Australian team and deserves to keep his place for the first Ashes Test against England, opener Marcu...
Tim Paine has the full support of the Australian team and deserves to keep his place for the first Ashes Test against England, opener Marcus Harris said Wednesday.
Paine suddenly quit as Test captain last week over a series of lewd text messages with a female colleague in 2017 that were about to be made public.
Harris said the news came as a shock to the playing group who only learned about it 30 minutes before the official announcement.
But he backed Paine to come through the scandal and said he deserved to play in the opening Test at Brisbane on December 8 on his wicketkeeping abilities alone.
“Yes, absolutely,” Harris, who is expected to open the innings with David Warner, said when asked if he should be in the starting eleven.
“He’s done a really good job in the last few years under tough circumstances, and I think you can still probably argue that he’s the best gloveman in the country.
“I know he’s got the support of all the players,” he added, with most of them personally contacting Paine in the wake of the scandal.
“Obviously Painey is a very popular member of the group, and he was as skipper as well. So we’re looking forward to him getting up here in...
