Australia's honest team image shattered after draw in Sydney

Jan 12, 2021 08:46 IST

Right after the sandpaper-gate that rocked Australian cricket in 2018 and there were calls for changing the behaviour and image of the Aussie cricketers. Tim Paine was considered the knight in shining armour who would clean up the bad-boys image of the side. But the behaviour of Paine in Sydney during the 3rd Test has once again raised questions about the integrity of the Aussie side. Paine's sledging of Ravichandran Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari on Day 5 made the fans sit up and question Australian captain's behaviour and the 36-year-old was forced to apologise. Paine said, "I want to apologize for the way I went about things yesterday. I'm someone who prides himself on the way I lead this team. And yesterday was a poor reflection of that. My leadership wasn't good enough. I wanted to come on and address that this morning and again, apologize to our fans and people who heard some of the things I said yesterday. It wasn't good enough and particularly from the leader of this team". Meanwhile, Steve Smith who lost his captaincy due to sandpaper-gate was also caught scuffing out the batting markers of Rishabh Pant and that too hasn't gone down well with the fans of the game.