Australia vs England, 2018: 4 Australians to watch out for

Tim Paine

Remember when it all started?

Without a state contract, stripped off the wicket-keeping duties in favor of the inter-state import Matthew Wade at the Hobart Hurricanes, contemplating quitting cricket to take up a humble employment at Kookaburra, this is what life was like for Tim Paine at the start of the Aussie summer.

Then he played one brief, albeit brutal counter-attack against the greatest England seamers of all time, when they were on song in tandem under the lights against the hooping pink ball at Adelaide and his world turned around. A national call-up out of the wilderness and justifying performances in the Ashes later, it now feels like Tim Paine never went out of the picture ever since his debut in 2010, with his magical comeback he made sure that he did not remain just another "could-have-been".

In South Africa, he displayed calmness under on and off-field pressure and seemed like the only one unaffected by everything falling apart around him as he became the stand-in skipper and even played courageous knocks with the bat. Given what circumstances are, Paine will now have the honor of leading the side going into the World Cup next year and his clean glovework, lower order cameos keeping the predating fast bowlers away from the tail-enders and shrewd captaincy will be interesting to observe in this ODI series.