Unforgettable moments from the India-Australia Test series 

#4 The Banter ft Rishabh Pant and Tim Paine

Best Babysitter- Rishabh Pant

The India vs Australia series was always expected to have some banter and sledging. However, what was unexpected was the way it was done. The series, courtesy of the controversial stump mic did give us certain noteworthy moments in the game.

While there were was the occasional cringe-worthy moments like the spat between Jadeja and Ishant that raised serious questions regarding broadcasting ethics and the use of stump mic, the series also gave us a lot of enjoyable moments like the banter between Kohli and Paine at Adelaide where Kohli reminded Paine of the risk involved if he messes up and Paine, in turn, calling Kohli a big head.

Lyon went on to ask Pujara if he wasn’t bored yet, Paine and Rohit Sharma were involved in the give and take for IPL contracts and six hitting abilities, while Pant reminded the entire Australian team that there was only one Pujara.

But the best of all has to be the banter between Pant and Paine which actually went on to become the identity of the young Pant when he met the Australian PM, to him actually babysitting Paine’s Kids. The incident reportedly gave Bonnie Paine 35000 extra followers on Instagram overnight.

This was, in many ways, the most light-hearted amongst the lot. But it did a great deal for Australia in proving that they were capable of playing within the lines despite being incited. And Paine keeping things on the field and going on to accept that he wished he played like Pant in his 20s spoke volumes about him being the right choice to lead the Australian team through this tumultuous phase.