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India vs Australia: 'Spoke to Ashwin, had a bit of laugh,' Tim Paine apologises for sledging incident during Sydney Test
India vs Australia: Australia captain Tim Paine was caught on stump mic sledging Ashwin on Day 5 of 3rd Test at SCG.
Australia captain Tim Paine on Tuesday issued an apology for his misconduct on Day 5 of the 3rd Test against India in Sydney. Speaking to reporters, Paine admitted that he let the pressure get to him and said a few words he should not have said.
Paine was caught on stump mic mouthing off Ashwin from behind the stumps in Nathan Lyon's over. At one stage he called Ashwin a "d****h****, but Ashwin kept his cool. Stitching an unbeaten 62-run stand with Hanuma Vihari in the final session, Ashwin saved the match for India, pushing it to a draw to keep the series tied at 1-1.
Paine, who apologised to his team mates for his three dropped catches in his post-match news conference on Monday, requested the opportunity to address the media again on Tuesday.
"I want to apologise for the way I went about things, I'm someone who prides himself on the way he leads this team and yesterday was a poor reflection of that," he told reporters.
"My leadership wasn't good enough, I let the pressure of the game get to me. Yesterday, I fell short of my expectations and my team's standards.
"I'm human, I want to apologise for the mistakes I made yesterday ... we've set really high standards over the last 18 months and yesterday was a bit of a blip on the radar."
The 36-year-old said he had felt "off" for the entire match, during which he was also fined 15% of his match fee for swearing while complaining to an umpire.
"I spoke to (Ashwin) quickly after the game yesterday, and I said to him 'yeah, you end up looking the fool, you open your mouth and you end up dropping a catch'," he added.
"We had a bit of a laugh about that ... and everything was fine."
The two teams will meet again for the fourth and final Test in Brisbane which begins from January 15th.
"I have to cop what's coming on the chin and I'm really looking forward to moving on to Brisbane and getting back more for playing the game more like Tim Paine plays the game," Paine said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
