'Australia Will Soon be Looking for a New Captain, Tim Paine has Never Been Up to It' - Pietersen

Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen has said Australia should look beyond Tim Paine for Test captaincy after India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 with a stunning win in Brisbane.

Pietersen said he never rated Paine as a good enough player and didn't see him lead Australia in another Test.

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"Australians don’t like to lose and the knives will be out for a few members of that team after this defeat," Pietersen wrote in Betway.

"We heard Tim Paine tell Ravichandran Ashwin that he “can’t wait to get you to the Gabba” – well they’ve been whacked at the Gabba, so where are they going to go now?

"I believe that Cricket Australia will soon be looking for a new captain – Paine has never, ever been up to it.

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"He got chucked into that position when Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft got caught up in the sandpaper controversy, but from my perspective, having played against him and watched him, he’s not an Australia captain. He’s just not a good enough player, apart from anything else.

"I would never have made him captain in the first place, and he’s probably never going to lead them into another Test match."

Paine himself had spoken about his future as Australia captain after the series loss, saying he intended to stick on.

"Nah not (thinking about it) at the moment to be honest,” Paine had said when asked about his future as captain.

“Still looking forward to going to South Africa and have the goal of reaching the Test championship final.

“I’ve said many times in the last two or three years, I don’t look past the next series.

“I’m loving doing my job. It’s a difficult job and at times like this it can be bloody hard work. But that’s what I signed up for. I didn’t play my best cricket at times in this series.

“I’ll go away and look to get better, improve parts of my game and I won’t be looking past that game.

"I’m loving it. I’m going to cop heaps of flack I’ve been absolutely belted by the Indians (on social media) for the last seven days.

"That’s part of the course of the job there’s people out there that get paid to critic the game and the job.

"I know when I’ve made mistakes and I try to get better. I am enjoying it. This has certainly been different for the last two games and in the criticism has come my way."

• Brisbane Test
• India vs Australia
• India vs Australia 2020
• India vs Australia 2020-21
• india vs australia brisbane test
• Kevin Pietersen
• Tim Paine