SYDNEY: Australia captain Tim Paine has apologised for his conduct during the final day of the third Test against India, saying his sledging of Ravichandran Ashwin fell short of the standards he has set for the team.

Wicket-keeper Paine at one stage called Ashwin a ‘dickhead’ as the spinner and Hanuma Vihari batted through the last three hours of the match to save a draw at Sydney Cricket Ground.

Paine, who apologised to his team mates for his three dropped catches in his post-match news conference on Monday, requested the opportunity to address the media again on Tuesday.

“I want to apologise for the way I went about things, I’m someone who prides himself on the way he leads this team and yesterday was a poor reflection of that,” he told reporters. “My leadership wasn’t good enough, I let the pressure of the game get to me. Yesterday [Monday], I fell short of my expectations and my team’s standards.

“I’m human, I want to apologise for the mistakes I made yesterday [Monday] ... we’ve set really high standards over the last 18 months and yesterday was a bit of a blip on the radar.”

The 36-year-old said he had felt ‘off’ for the entire match, during which he was also fined 15% of his match fee for swearing while complaining to an umpire.

Paine is acutely aware that the only reason he was handed the Australian captaincy after the Newlands ball-tampering scandal cost Steve Smith the job in 2018 was because of the non-confrontational way he went about the game.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2021