IND vs AUS | Lack of crowd won’t affect players, believes Tim Paine
Australian Test skipper Tim Paine believes that the absence of spectators will not affect players in the forthcoming series between India and Australia as players tend to forget crowds the moment they step onto the field. Paine further claimed that Australia are now stronger than they were in 2018.
Amidst chaos and uncertainty, Cricket Australia (CA) released the official itinerary, last month, for India’s tour of Australia later this year and the schedule had the Indians kick off the four-Test series at Gabba on December 3. However, a major difference in the series, as compared to the previous Border-Gavaskar Trophy bouts, will be the absence of crowds, with the Covid-19 pandemic virtually putting an end to live spectators for the foreseeable future due to the potential risk of compromising public health safety.
This has made several experts believe that it could alter the course of how the games are played, due to some players thriving off crowd energy, but according to Australian Test skipper Tim Paine, empty stands will not make a difference. Paine stated that players tend to forget about the audience once they set foot on to the field and claimed that the course of matches will be defined by the players’ skill and performance.
"I don't think it (no crowd) should affect anyone. Once you go out there, it very quickly narrows down to what's happening on the pitch. Most players tend to forget the crowd once they're in the heat of the battle. So crowd or no crowd, it'll all boil down to performing and executing your skills better," Paine said during an interaction with journalists via a video call on Tuesday morning, reported TOI.
The absence of both Steve Smith and David Warner in the 2018/19 series meant that the Indian bowlers mauled an inexperienced Australian batting line-up and Paine was of the opinion that the hosts would have to be strong with the bat, time time around, in order for them to take control of proceedings.
"A lot of the time in that last series, we didn't get enough runs on the board to put them under pressure. So as good as our bowling attack is, you still need to be scoring runs in Test matches to get yourself in a winning position.”
Australia lost the series against India 2-1 in 2018/19, but the team, which not so long ago retained the Ashes on English soil, has now been boosted by the return of the duo of Smith, Warner and the emergence of newcomer Marnus Labuschagne. The 35-year-old Tasmanian claimed that Australia had learnt their lessons from the previous tour and asserted that they now are much stronger and well prepared than they were two years ago.
“We certainly struggled against them last time. That said, they (India) played really well. I'm sure we've learnt a lot from playing against them last summer and we think we are a better team now than we were then.”