Tim Paine says Marnus Labuschagne will make a ‘great’ captain

Australia Test skipper Tim Paine has tipped Marnus Labuschagne to be a future captain and says the top-order batsman’s pure management qualities make him an excellent match for the function.
Since his debut towards Pakistan in 2018, Labuschagne, 26, has grown in stature within the Australian set-up and is presently the third-ranked batsman in Test cricket.
“I think he’d be a good (leader),” Paine advised reporters from Brisbane on Monday.
“Marnus is a great thinker of the game. He’s a good team man, he’s got so much enthusiasm for his team and the game.”
Paine has been impressed by Labuschagne’s enthusiasm and expects the prolific batsman to play a much bigger function within the close to future.
“In terms of our cricket team improving and Marnus evolving, I think in the next couple of years we’ll definitely see him take the step up,” he added.
“He’s got some real natural leadership ability and if that’s harnessed and helped, I think he’ll be a great captain.”
Paine took over as Test captain in 2018 when he changed Steve Smith, who was banned from worldwide cricket for 12 months and suspended from management roles for 2 years for his function within the Newlands ball-tampering scandal.
Paine additionally gave his backing to educate Justin Langer, whose teaching type has, in keeping with media stories, resulted in some dressing room discontent.
“We had a team review at the end of the Indian series which is pretty common practice in professional sports,” Paine stated, including that Langer, or ‘JL’, had been doing a superb job at a tough time.
“We all feel now as a team we want to evolve and improve and JL’s a part of that,” he added.”It’s not him by himself, it’s the entire teaching workers and all our gamers.”