Tim Paine

Paine was announced as the interim captain for the final two days of the game and later confirmed as the 46th captain of the Australian Test team.

Paine stepped down as Australia's Test captain in November 2021 due to an occasion of improper conduct off the field during 2017 in which he sent explicit messages to a female co-worker.

He did not play for Australia again, and in 2023 retired from all forms.

Paine captained Tasmania at Under-15 and Under-17 level, along with being a member of its Under-19 team at the age of just fifteen.

He was vice-captain of the Australian Under-17, before scoring a first-class century for his University at Hobart.

"He was always the smallest one playing cricket," his father, John said.

"We lived in a fairly quiet street and we lived right next to the beach [in the suburb of Lauderdale] so they used to play a fair bit of beach cricket. We used to have a cricket pitch in our backyard which was the driveway and the next-door neighbours had a turf wicket which the boys used to roll and mow and do all that sort of stuff. So he had to learn from an early age I suppose to be a bit stronger and a bit more competitive."

As a junior, Paine was a talented Australian rules player—considered good enough to make the Australian Football League (AFL)—and his brother Nick, one of four siblings, plays in the Tasmanian Football League with the Clarence Football Club.

Paine's uncle, Robert Shaw, was an AFL player and coach.

He attended secondary school at Bayview Secondary College and Rosny College.

At 16, Paine became Australian domestic cricket's youngest-ever contracted player when he received a basic A$10,000 rookie contract with Tasmania—an innovation in Australian cricket.

After Cricket Australia allowed rookie contracts Paine said, "These new contracts are a great idea; I'm pretty happy about them anyway! It's good to give young players something [along these lines] to show them that they're in the back of the minds of the administrators and the coaches."

Timothy David Paine (born 8 December 1984) is an Australian former cricketer and a former captain of the Australia national cricket team in Test cricket.

In December 2003, he was announced captain of the Australian Under-19 team for the 2004 U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, played in February and March 2004.

Relieved of wicket-keeping duties, Paine scored 142 runs at an average of 23.66 and took two catches, along with taking seven wickets at an average of 22.28 in eight matches.

However, Australia lost the Under-19 Plate Championship final to Bangladesh.

He made both his first-class and one-day debuts for Tasmania in 2005; scoring a one-day century later in the 2005–06 season, and a double-century, 215, in his next innings.

Paine made his Tasmanian debut as solely an opening batsman in November 2005, during an ING Cup one-day match against Western Australia in Perth, scoring 28 from 44 balls.

His first-class debut came shortly after as an opener when Tasmania played South Australia in Hobart during December.

Opening the batting, Paine scored a duck (zero) in the first innings and 17 in the second as the match was drawn.

He made his maiden List A century in his first season, scoring 111 in the ING Cup.

The following season his made his maiden first-class century with 215 against Western Australia in a Pura Cup match at Perth in October 2006.

Paine played as an opening batsman in Tasmania's maiden Sheffield Shield season triumph in 2006–07, scoring zero and five.

Despite his low scores in the final, Paine was Tasmania's highest run scorer in the one-day competition that season.

He continued with one-day performances in the following season in which Tasmania won the Ford Ranger Cup, aggregating 261 runs and collecting 21 dismissals.

He was a part of the state's maiden Sheffield Shield victory that season and also their 2007–08 one-day winning side.

For the first part of his career he was Tasmania's second wicket-keeper, behind Sean Clingeleffer, particularly at first-class level, before taking Clingeleffer's place permanently in late 2007.

2008–09 saw Paine score 445 Sheffield Shield runs at 29.66 along with 42 dismissals.

During his time with Australia, Paine won the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.

A product of the Australian Cricket Academy, Paine became the youngest-ever contracted player in Australia, when he received a rookie contract with Tasmania at 16 years of age.

Paine made his ODI debut for Australia as a replacement for regular wicket-keeper Brad Haddin in 2009 against Scotland.

His growing maturity saw him become Tasmanian vice-captain ahead of the 2009–10 season.

In early 2009, Paine was selected to play for Australia 'A' against Pakistan 'A' in a series of one-day and first-class matches.

Playing at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane, Paine scored 134 off 136 balls in the third one-day match to secure a series win for the Australian 'A' side.

In 2009, Paine was selected for the national squad for the One Day International series against England, shortly after the conclusion of the Ashes Test series, when incumbent wicketkeeper Brad Haddin returned home for surgery on a broken finger.

A further injury to Haddin in 2010 paved the way for Paine's Test debut against Pakistan in England.

Soon after, he played in another two Tests against India, before Haddin's recovery for the 2010–11 Ashes series.

From that time – including almost two full seasons lost to injury – he was not a regular in the Australian cricket side from April 2011 until his recall for the 2017–18 Ashes series.

A right-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper, he played for the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket and was the captain of the Hobart Hurricanes before his selection for Australia in the 2017–18 Ashes series.

After former Australian captain Steve Smith admitted to involvement in a ball-tampering incident during the Third Test against South Africa in March 2018, Smith and vice-captain David Warner were stood down from their leadership positions mid-match.