Australia captain Tim Paine took a swipe – albeit a cheeky one – at his Indian counterpart Virat Kohli, urging him to say yes to playing a Test in Brisbane when they tour the country next year.
India refused to play at the Gabba – Australia’s stronghold in the five-day format – when they toured the country late last year. India won the series 2-1 in the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner.
India had said no to pink-ball Test last time as well but with Kohli having led the team in his country’s first day-night Test against Bangladesh in Kolkata, they can’t be seen to have any reservations about it in the future.
However, Paine said making India start the Border Gavaskar series in Australia next year at Brisbane – where the Aussies haven’t lost a Test since 1988 – won’t be an easy task.
After guiding his team to an innings win over Pakistan at the Gabba on Sunday, Paine was asked if he would like to play at the same venue against India next year. The wicketkeeper said: “We will certainly try. We will have to run that by Virat. We’ll get an answer from him at some stage for sure.
“That [Brisbane] is where we would like to start our summer and it has been for a long, long time except for last summer. We will ask Virat, see if we can get his permission to play here and maybe even get a pink-ball Test if he is in a good mood. So we will wait and see,” he added sarcastically.
Paine said there is no secret behind Australia’s dominance in Brisbane, just hard work.
“We like to start here at the Gabba against anyone. Having said that it doesn’t win us games of cricket. The reason we win at the Gabba is that we outplay the opposition.”
