5 things you might not know about Tim Paine

18 November 2017 05:54

Australia handed wicketkeeper Tim Paine a surprise recall as they named their 13-man squad for the first two Ashes Tests.

Here, Press Association Sport looks at five things you may not know about the 32-year-old.

Seven-year absence from Australian Test team

Paine played the last of his four previous Tests against India just before England's 2010-11 Ashes victory. He has since struggled with a serious finger injury but returns in place of his Tasmania team-mate Matthew Wade.

His only first-class hundred came in 2006

Paine has not scored a first-class century for 11 years, with his only ton coming in October 2006 - one year before Australia coach Darren Lehmann made his last hundred for South Australia before his retirement from playing at the end of 2007.

From Banbury to the Ashes in two years

Paine spent time in the Home Counties Premier League as Banbury Cricket Club's overseas professional in 2015. He enjoyed a successful stint in Oxfordshire, scoring over 1,000 runs for the club.

Left out of Tasmania side earlier in season

Paine was not selected in Tasmania's squad for the first two Sheffield Shield matches and was in the field while Wade kept wicket in their latest game but it is Paine who got the nod for his country.

Impressed with bat in warm-up match

Paine scored 52 runs for a Cricket Australia XI against England at the Adelaide Oval earlier in the month. He then earned a Tasmania recall and made 71 not out this week ahead of his Australia call-up.

Source: PA