Ashes 2019: Tim Paine reveals how he played the Oval Test with a broken thumb

The Ashes 2019 series was perhaps one of the best Test match exhibitions in recent times and proved that the five-day format is not going anywhere if teams continued to produce such amazing contests for the fans to cheer for and watch both in the ground and in their homes on the TV. The 2-2 score line doesn’t show how much the players from both sides invested in the series, including Australia captain Tim Paine.

Paine had taken over the job of leading the Kangaroos amidst one of the darkest times in their cricketing history- the ball-tampering saga. He not only rebuilt the team but ingrained better values in his players and showed great sportsmanship on the field as well during the Ashes. Though he was criticized for his poor batting form and his atrocious DRS usage, his captaincy cannot be doubted as he helped the Aussies retain the urn in England for the first time since 2001.

Paine’s painful Oval Test

Tim Paine is probably the unluckiest cricketers when it comes to fingers, as he has broken his fingers quite a number of times. He once required seven operations on his right index finger after a nasty break in 2010, which almost ended his promising career before time. Then he suffered a hairline fracture to his right thumb in the Johannesburg Test against South Africa, his first as Australian captain.

Now in a column for the Australian, the skipper has mentioned that he suffered a broken thumb during the end of the fifth Test of the Ashes 2019 at The Oval. “My thumb was broken towards the end of that Test but it is not displaced, so I should be right to get back into training early,” Paine was quoted as saying. He didn’t go into the details of the injury or which thumb was broken-right or left.

Meanwhile, the Ashes 2019 saw amazing performances from Steve Smith of Australia and Ben Stokes of England. Smith made twin centuries in the first Test and then came back to make a 211 in the fourth match after missing the third Test at Leeds. Stokes, on the other hand, made two centuries and also picked wickets. One of his hundreds in Leeds, a 135* helped England chase down 359 runs with one wicket in hand.

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