‘Will watch very closely’: Australian Test captain Tim Paine on England vs West Indies series

The series will mark the return of international cricket after a forced break due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to interim change of rules as well.

Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine will be keenly watching the upcoming Test series between England and West Indies, the wicket-keeper batsman told reporters. The series will mark the return of international cricket after a forced break due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to interim change of rules as well.

Australia's Tim Paine celebrates with the Ashes urn after drawing the series to retain the Ashes (Action Images via Reuters)

“I am fascinated like anyone is to watch some Test cricket again and to see exactly how the West Indies and England series is going to work and the different things that they are going to be doing that haven’t been done before in cricket,” Paine told reporters via Zoom as per cricket.com.au.

“I think it is going to be interesting and certainly for me and Justin (Langer) and the Australian international players it’s something we are going to watch very closely.”

Australia are scheduled to play their next Test in November against Afghanistan, followed by the marquee series against India. Paine said that players will get time to freshen up and the fact that they will play domestic cricket is good news for the youngsters in the Australian domestic set up.

“The next Test we’ll play is our summer, so we’re really lucky here that we’ll have a pre-season, all our nationally contracted players have gone back to their states, which is a great thing for both them and all our young domestic players in the country to be learning off Steve Smith, Marnus [Labuschagne], Pat Cummins and all these guys,” Paine told reporters.

“You get a mental freshen up, which your David Warners and Pats and Steves never get, but also these guys are getting to do a full pre-season, getting their bodies right, which they haven’t been able to do for a number of years.

“I think our Australian cricketers will be as well prepared as they’ve ever been come their first game, whether that’s Test cricket, one-day cricket or T20.”