Ian Chappell Rues Tim Paine's Leadership Skills Against Red-hot England

Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell has criticised Tim Paine’s leadership skills against England-led by Eoin Morgan. Chappell believes that Paine was not authentic to his role. Thus, the former legend said wicketkeeper-batsman should have stamped his own authority on the team rather than following Justin Langer’s philosophy.

After former top-order batsman, Langer was appointed as the head coach of the Australian team, Paine had talked about following Langer’s ideas.

However, Chappell believes that a captain should always have his own ideas as he has to lead the team on the ground.

A captain should have his own methods, says Chappell.

Ian Chappell wrote for ESPN Cricinfo column, “Following the appointment of a new coach, Paine talked about the team putting into practice Justin Langer’s philosophies. Paine should have established how HE wanted the team to behave and how HE wanted them to play. When Mark Taylor began his highly successful reign as Australian captain, he told coach Bob Simpson – who had stepped forward to speak to the players – ‘I’ll handle this, Bob'”.

In fact, Chappell gave an example of Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy in the series decider against Australia in 2017 at picturesque Dharamshala.

On the other hand, Virat Kohli had injured his shoulder and Rahane led in his own style. Furthermore, Rahane decided to field wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who turned to be an X-factor.

Chappell further noted, “Contrast Paine’s position with that of Ajinkya Rahane, who took over from injured captain Virat Kohli during a Test series against Australia. In his own positive way he made it obvious he was leading in his own style and was not a carbon-copy of Kohli”.

Ian Chappell added the leader of the side must stamp his authority on the side as he has to lead on the ground.

Thus, the former skipper went on to add that it is pivotal for the captain to earn his respect among the team players.

Ian further penned down, “It sounds obvious but the first thing a captain must do when he’s appointed is to lead. This is one way to earn the respect of fellow players, which is crucial to any leadership success.”

Australia is struggling to get going against a potent England side. The visitors are trailing 4-0 and thus they are staring at an ignominious series whitewash.

“The other aspect of the job a captain has to quickly grasp is that all wins and all losses go against his name. Once a captain understands that concept he’s more likely to stamp his authority on the task and improve his chances of success,” he concluded.

In fact, Australia had lost by a margin of 4-1 against their arch-rivals while playing at their own den.

Furthermore, Steven Smith and David Warner were also part of the Aussie side back then. Thus, Australians have a lot of homework to do in the 50-overs format.