“India very good at creating sideshows” – Tim Paine on the Border Gavaskar Trophy loss

Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine, who oversaw the loss to India in the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy has come out and slammed the Indian side for ‘distracting the opposition.’ His comments particularly dealt with the final Test in Brisbane when the Gabba was breached for the first time in three decades resulting in a historic 2-1 series win for India.

Reports ahead of the final Test suggested that the Indian contingent was unwilling to travel to Brisbane because of the stringent COVID-19 protocols in place and wanted to contest the final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the venue for the third Test match of the series. Though the game was ultimately played at The Gabba in Brisbane, India went on to win the match in dramatic fashion and Paine believes India had managed to distract the focus of the Australian players.

“Part of the challenge of playing against India is they’re very good at niggling you and trying to distract you with stuff that doesn’t really matter and there were times in that series where we fell for that,” Paine told news.com.au.

“The classic example was when they said they weren’t going to the Gabba so we didn’t know where we were going. They’re very good at creating these sideshows and we took our eye off the ball.”

The recent Border Gavaskar Trophy was Australia’s second consecutive loss to India at home. They had lost the 2018-19 series as well and both the series losses came under Tim Paine’s captaincy.

Former India international Deep Dasgupta took shots at Tim Paine for his recent comments. He mentioned that India never put forward an official statement regarding their hesitance to travel to Brisbane.

“If there was no official statement what were they taking about and what are they talking about, who were they listening to. So, basically they messed it and lost after 30-plus years at Gabba; they lost back-to-back series to India without Indian team not having quite a few players available for that game. It’s their fault to take their eyes off the ball.

“I don’t think India played any mind game to be honest. I find it really amusing he has to bring this up now, and I mean just too bad they fell for it. I don’t think I have ever heard of an Indian team playing mind games and sideshows,” Dasgupta told Sports Today.