However, on Tuesday, Paine addressed a press conference and admitted he let pressure get to him during the third Test and it affected his mood, captaincy and performance.
“I’m someone who prides themselves on the way I lead this team and yesterday was a poor reflection, my leadership wasn’t good enough, I let the pressure of the game get to me. It affected my mood and then from there affected my performance,” Paine was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
“I said to our players yesterday ‘I’ve had a really poor game as a leader’. I let our group down. I’m human, I want to apologise for the mistakes that I made,” he added.
Paine’s antics on the final day of the historic draw came a day after he was fined 15 per cent of his match fee after being found guilty of dissent for appealing to standing umpire Paul Wilson for some “f***ing consistency”.
The 36-year-old had a horrible day behind the stumps as he dropped as many as three catches on Monday, which further dented Australia’s chances of…