Could Tim Paine be axed after Australia’s humiliating loss against England?  

England handed over Australia a defeat that they would rather want to forget. After inflicting one T20 defeat on Australia, England whitewashed the Aussies by 6-0.

Australia skipper Aaron Finch decided to chase after winning the toss but they could not chase a mammoth total of 221 runs for five and lost the match by 28 runs.

They suffered a humiliating defeat as England sealed the ODI series by 5-0. Australia had a chance of registering a consolation win in the one-off T20I against the hosts, but they could not change their fortunes and were forced to return home without a win.

Australian coach Justin Langer raises his concerns over ODI captaincy:

Although Justin Langer hopes that his team can bounce back stronger, he has admitted that captain Tim Paine’s future in the ODI team is up in the air after the series loss.

Paine struggled throughout the series scoring just 36 runs at an average of 7.20 before returning home. Although Langer has hailed Paine’s leadership, he has hinted that he has doubts over the Tasmanian’s viability as the ODI captain.

“I was with our National selector today and we discussed a few things. One of our huge priorities is making sure that we can get the captaincy and leadership right.”

“No doubt Tim had a tough time here. He has done a wonderful job since South Africa in steadying the ship,” Langer said.

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“We need to work out whether he’s going to perform well in white-ball cricket and he has a chance but he doesn’t then we will have to look somewhere else,” he added.

“It is interesting to see that Joe Root plays in the one-day team but he is captain of the Test team and England split the captaincy role with Eoin Morgan,” Langer said.

“I am starting to understand really quickly that the schedule of international cricket is hectic.”

“These all the things we are going to have a look at.”

Who might replace Paine if he is dropped?

Aaron Finch, the skipper of Australia’s Twenty20 outfit, could be considered as the most logical candidate to replace Paine as ODI skipper if the keeper is dropped.