England's Barmy Army pokes fun at Tim Paine, Australia captain responds in style: 'Not much original in last 20 years'

Reacting to the jibe, Australia Test captain Tim Paine said he found the whole thing laughable and came up with a gem of a line in response.

Tim Paine is no stranger to getting belted on social media. His comments have either sparked a debate or mostly irked fans on social media. Not too long ago, he rubbed the Indian fans in the wrong way saying that India's initial plans of not travelling to Brisbane for the final Test of the 2021/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy was a way of throwing the Australian team off-guard, which clearly did not go down too well with the massive fanbase of the Indian cricket team.

Tim Paine had the apt response for the Barmy Army.  (Getty Images)

Similarly, two days ago, England's legendary fan group, The Barmy Army took a shot at Paine, putting up a statistical tweet, which stated that the numbers of runs skipper Joe Root has scored in the year 2021, are just a tad behind Paine's entire Test career runs. While Paine has scored a total of 1534 Test runs, Root has amassed 1455 alone in the year 2021, and that of the England captain needs another 80 to surpass Paine's career runs.

Reacting to the jibe, the Australia Test skipper said he found the comparison rather laughable and came up with a gem of a line in response

"I'd like to say 'apples and oranges' but it's not even that. The Barmy Army watch a lot of cricket, you would think they would understand the game a little bit better than that. I've got 1534 more runs than the Barmy Army," Paine said on SEN Hobart.

Not that Paine took any exception to the matter. "Joe Root - if he wasn't scoring more runs than me they'd have a serious issue, wouldn't they?" Paine asked. They rely on him to win games of cricket with the bat, I'm a small piece in our jigsaw. The Barmy Army enjoy poking fun at me, but that's fine," the skipper added.

With strict Covid restriction in place in Australia, The Barmy Army will not be able to travel Down Under in at all the Ashes goes ahead as planned. Paine called it said knowing what the fan group brings to the table, but included one final parting shot.

"It's actually a bit sad to be honest, because it does really add to the atmosphere, and they are excellent at what they do," he said. Granted, they do re-use a lot of chants from the English Premier League, I don't think they've come up with too much original in the last 20 years. But they're excellent, brilliant to have at a cricket ground."