Paine standing firm in face of 'heaps of flak'

India's most famous Test cricket story rewrote the script at the start of each new episode, but if Australia captain Tim Paine was in charge of the plotlines he reckons he wouldn't have changed the set-up before the denouements reached in Sydney and Brisbane.

In the wake of his team's 2-1 defeat in the Vodafone Series which was sealed by their first defeat at 'fortress Gabba' in 32 years, Paine indicated he wants to lead Australia to their next Test engagement in South Africa likely starting next month.

And he's also eyeing the ICC's inaugural Test Championship final that has been pencilled in for the UK mid-year, should Australia earn the right to play.

But he acknowledged his outfit was outplayed in home conditions by an opponent that was able to not only recover and prosper in the face of a debilitating injury toll, but win the crucial moments of the last three Tests having been humiliated on the final day of the series opener in Adelaide.

Paine said it was that failure to seize the game-changing moments that India, by contrast, were able to habitually grab that proved the difference in Australia's first series loss on their home patch since India last visited here (and achieved the same scoreline) two summers ago.

"It happened throughout, even if you went right back to Adelaide, whether it was with bat, ball or in field, every time we had a chance to go ahead of the game we let it slip," Paine said after India completed a remarkable chase of 328 with three wickets and three overs to spare on day five.

"It happened a bit in Sydney with our fielding and then probably yesterday a bit with our batting, we continually lost wickets when trying to put the foot down and couldn't quite get a partnership together.

"I thought every time India needed to do that, or needed a wicket, someone managed to do it for them.

"They won the key moments. I just said to 'JL' (coach Justin Langer) I felt like we turned up to Sydney and the Gabba on day five in as good a position as you'd want to be in, and we couldn't get the job done.

"There were some things that we could have and should have done better, but at the same time I thought India's batting group was amazing on both those day fives."

Today's loss and the accompanying series defeat represented the first time Australia have won the opening Test of a series on home soil (of four matches or more) but failed to emerge the victor since the 1954-55 Ashes.

On that occasion, they romped home by a similarly emphatic margin to their Adelaide triumph last month – an innings and 154 runs in the first Test against Len Hutton's England at the Gabba – but failed to record another win for the Test summer.

And prior to India's other series win in Australia two years ago, the home team's only other series defeats in the past decade have been against South Africa, which looms as their next opponent with three as-yet unscheduled Tests expected to be played on the High Veld.

When Australia plunged to a 2-1 loss to the Proteas in 2016, following a 3-0 away thumping at the hands of Sri Lanka, the men's Test team underwent a dramatic player cull.

Paine does not believe that is necessary given the strong positions Australia found themselves in heading into the final phase of matches at the SCG where they managed to take just three India wickets on the last day, and the Gabba where they were unable to prevent a record day-five chase.

The 36-year-old certainly has no plans to step away from the captaincy despite coming under heavy scrutiny for his form and behaviour during the Sydney Test and his tactics during India's historic pursuit today.

"No not at the moment," Paine said when asked this evening if he was contemplating his playing future. "I'm still looking forward to going to South Africa, we've got a series there.

"We had a goal to make this Test championship final and I think that's still achievable. But I've said many times in the past few years that I don't look past the next series.

"I'm going to cop heaps of flak - I've been absolutely belted by the Indians for about seven days.

"It's been interesting, but I know that's par for the course with this job.I know there are people that get paid to critique the game and critique my performance as a player and a captain and I'm totally fine with that.

"It's a difficult job and at times like this it can be bloody hard work when you're copping it left, right and centre but that's what I signed up for.

"I didn't play my best cricket at times in this series, but that can happen.

"I'll go away, I'll look to get better and improve certain parts of my game for the next series but I won't be looking past that series."

As the post-mortems begin into precisely how India have become so adept at winning in Australia – they have won four Tests in their past two visits after a total of five wins across the preceding six decades – myriad theories are already being touted.

Among them is that the injury toll India sustained to their entire first-choice fast and spin-bowling complements during the first three Tests, as well as the loss of skipper Virat Kohli who returned home on paternity after Adelaide, made them a fresher and less predictable opponent.

When Australia (in 2019) overturned 18 years of failure to secure the Ashes in the UK it was a success built partly on a 'squad mentality', whereby some bowlers were rotated in and out of the starting XI depending on how their respective strengths best suited individual venues.

India embraced that philosophy through circumstances more so than design as Mohammed Shami (fractured arm), Umesh Yadav (calf strain), Jasprit Bumrah (abdominal strain), Ravichandran Ashwin (back spasms) and Ravindra Jadeja (dislocated thumb) were all sidelined during this campaign.

Yet the replacement players who filled their positions performed like seasoned Test veterans, even though most of them had played one or fewer matches at the elite level prior to having their names inked on the team sheet.

Paine acknowledged India's batters also handled Australia's premier spinner Nathan Lyon (nine wickets at 55.11) comfortably due to their familiarity with quality spin bowling, and claimed "there might be a few little things going on" with pace spearhead Mitchell Starc's fitness.

But he refuted suggestions his team had under-estimated what came to be called 'India's B-team' due to the volume of players plucked from the periphery of their touring party and noted those players' capacity to perform when given a chance was also critical to the series outcome.

"Their guys came in and played their roles, and that's you expect of anyone," Paine said tonight.

"Whether they're big-name players or not, they showed they've got some real depth and some real skill.

"I don't think we took them lightly or thought we were going to roll them over.

"We walked away from Adelaide with everyone saying we're awesome, and we were pretty ordinary for most of that Test match except for an hour.

"Then we've had the last two Test matches we've absolutely copped it for being awful, but we walked into day five of both those Test matches in great positions and did some good things.

"We've got keep perspective on it. We had our chances to win this series and win this Test match and we didn't take them.

"My message to the players will be we've got another opportunity in a month or so's time, and international cricket is a bloody tough sport - it's brutal and you're going to cop flak.

"But we're in a pretty privileged position to cop that flak."

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: India won by eight wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: India won by three wickets