My Wife Had A Million New Indian Followers After 'Babysitter' Photo With Rishabh Pant - Tim Paine

The banter between Australian captain Tim Paine and Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant was one of the highlights of India’s 2018-19 Down Under tour. Tim Paine had asked Pant to babysit the kids as he wanted him to veer off the track. Subsequently, Paine’s wife Bonnie Paine posted a photo on Instagram with Pant holding one of the kids and added that Pant is the best babysitter.

The photo went viral on social media and as a result, Paine’s wife had a million new Indian followers after posting a photo with Rishabh Pant. Paine added that his wife was not even watching the match when he had sweetly sledged Rishabh Pant and got to know about the same through social media platforms.

It was all good banter.

“I don’t think she was watching,” Paine said, as quoted by news.com.au.

“Then I think she had got a bit of it through her Instagram and then she put up that photo on and as it happens, and as it’s happened, she had a million new Indian followers the next day so she panicked a little bit that it was on the news.”

Tim Paine was on fire and the sweet banter between him and Pant was a treat for all the fans.

“Tell you what big MS is back in the one-day squad. Should get this bloke down to Hurricanes… They need a batter. Fancy that extend you Aussie holiday, beautiful town Hobart too… get him a waterfront apartment,” Tim Paine had said during the Boxing Day Test in 2018.

“Have him over for dinner. Do you babysit? I can take my wife to the movies while you watch the kids.”

Paine added they were bored as they could not get a wicket and thought that this instigating will help in producing a false shot from Pant. However, it wasn’t to be the case as Pant turned out to be the second-highest run-getter on the tour as he scored 350 runs in seven innings. Paine added Pant is a talented player.

Tim Paine to @RishabPant777 at Boxing Day Test: "You babysit? I'll take the wife to the movies one night, you'll look after the kids?"

*Challenge accepted!* ?

(? Mrs Bonnie Paine) pic.twitter.com/QkMg4DCyDT

— ICC (@ICC) January 1, 2019

“Geez, we were bored. Could not get a wicket,” Paine said.

“Well Rick (Ponting) knows him quite well – one, he’s very very good, but two, we found out early in that series that discovered early in the series that sledging him was a waste of time. It just didn’t bother him, but what we found was that you could get a real lapse of concentration out of him so we went a bit that way.

“So I just tried to put him off and talk rubbish to try and get him involved because he was likely to play a poor shot at a time. But he’s a seriously talented player.”

Rishabh Pant had a successful tour of Australia as he scored a fine knock of 159 runs in the final and fourth Test at Sydney. India had won the historic series for the first time on Australian soil by 2-1.