Anybody would think that Azhar Ali and Tim Paine have had wildly different careers.
Azhar Ali has played 77 Tests and has scored almost 6000 Test runs. Tim Paine has played just 30 Tests and has just under 1300 runs and 125 catches.
And yet their careers have followed one another so closely, it's unbelievable.
The two players are basically almost identical in official age - Paine has just had his 35th birthday while Azhar's will follow 73 days later.
Early days
This was reflected in them both making their Test debuts in England in the fateful summer of 2010, amid the spotfixing dramas and Ijaz Butt's theatrics.
Tim Paine was even ahead of Steve Smith - who debuted in the same Lords Test - as the anointed one in Australian cricket. He was a gifted batsman as well as Australia's best glovesman since Ian Healy, and he was being groomed to replace Brad Haddin.
Tim Paine's world collapsed on 21 November 2010 when he suffered a serious finger injury. He didn't play another Test for 7 years, in which time his right index finger had multiple operations, with the insertion of 8 nails and a metal plate, as well as two bone grafts.
When injury struck, these were the respective records of the two young internationals:
Tim Paine: 4 Tests, highest score 92, 287 runs at an average of 35.87.
Azhar Ali: 8 Tests, highest score 92 not out, 410 runs at an average of 31.53.
Azhar scores a mountain of runs while Paine's career looks over
Seven long years passed before Tim Paine played another Test. He had permanently lost the sensation in his right index finger apart from the pain he felt brushing his teeth, holding a pen or getting dressed.
Meanwhile Azhar Ali had seven fruitful years, driven by averaging almost 60 in the UAE. During Paine's wilderness years, Azhar was nurtured almost as if he was a youngster by Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan, and he scored 4558 runs at 49.01 overall.
A new beginning for them both
Azhar Ali had been treated almost like a talented youngster during the Misbah years, but when Misbah retired in 2017 the reality is that Azhar Ali - even at his official age - was one of the oldest batsmen in the world.
When Azhar played his next Test at the end of September 2017, he was suddenly the senior batsman and expected to take responsibility.
Within a month, something unexpected happened in Australia. The Test team had been rebooted after a horrific home series defeat by South Africa the previous summer, and Tim Paine was suddenly recalled as the wicketkeeper to bring his well-known leadership skills to a young team skippered by Steve Smith, who was a rather absorbed, detached skipper.
These are the Test records of Azhar Ali and Tim Paine since their careers entered this new stage at the age of 32, right up to the present day.
Tim Paine: 26 matches, 1008 runs at 30.54.
Azhar Ali: 17 matches, 917 runs at 28.65.
Captains, at an age when their contemporaries had already retired
Within six months, the ball-tampering saga saw Paine elevated to the national captaincy, at the age of 33 years and 4 months.
He has never really been fully embraced as skipper in Australia, even though he is universally recognised as the best keeper for decades and the best available leader. The problem is that at his advanced age now everyone can see that his batting has slipped and that Alex Carey is capable of scoring more runs. Paine himself at every interview repeats that at his age, his place in the team is a series-by-series proposition, and that as soon as he stops performing he will retire. He even refuses to commit to remaining skipper until the World Test Championship Final in June 2020.
Azhar Ali could not be more different. He was only appointed skipper 12 weeks before his 35th birthday, and he has had the following averages in his last 4 Test series outside Asia:
3.00
16.75
9.83
15.50
So similar, but so different.
One sees himself as a stopgap, the other sees himself as the long-term skipper.
Azhar Ali has played 77 Tests and has scored almost 6000 Test runs. Tim Paine has played just 30 Tests and has just under 1300 runs and 125 catches.
And yet their careers have followed one another so closely, it's unbelievable.
The two players are basically almost identical in official age - Paine has just had his 35th birthday while Azhar's will follow 73 days later.
Early days
This was reflected in them both making their Test debuts in England in the fateful summer of 2010, amid the spotfixing dramas and Ijaz Butt's theatrics.
Tim Paine was even ahead of Steve Smith - who debuted in the same Lords Test - as the anointed one in Australian cricket. He was a gifted batsman as well as Australia's best glovesman since Ian Healy, and he was being groomed to replace Brad Haddin.
Tim Paine's world collapsed on 21 November 2010 when he suffered a serious finger injury. He didn't play another Test for 7 years, in which time his right index finger had multiple operations, with the insertion of 8 nails and a metal plate, as well as two bone grafts.
When injury struck, these were the respective records of the two young internationals:
Tim Paine: 4 Tests, highest score 92, 287 runs at an average of 35.87.
Azhar Ali: 8 Tests, highest score 92 not out, 410 runs at an average of 31.53.
Azhar scores a mountain of runs while Paine's career looks over
Seven long years passed before Tim Paine played another Test. He had permanently lost the sensation in his right index finger apart from the pain he felt brushing his teeth, holding a pen or getting dressed.
Meanwhile Azhar Ali had seven fruitful years, driven by averaging almost 60 in the UAE. During Paine's wilderness years, Azhar was nurtured almost as if he was a youngster by Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan, and he scored 4558 runs at 49.01 overall.
A new beginning for them both
Azhar Ali had been treated almost like a talented youngster during the Misbah years, but when Misbah retired in 2017 the reality is that Azhar Ali - even at his official age - was one of the oldest batsmen in the world.
When Azhar played his next Test at the end of September 2017, he was suddenly the senior batsman and expected to take responsibility.
Within a month, something unexpected happened in Australia. The Test team had been rebooted after a horrific home series defeat by South Africa the previous summer, and Tim Paine was suddenly recalled as the wicketkeeper to bring his well-known leadership skills to a young team skippered by Steve Smith, who was a rather absorbed, detached skipper.
These are the Test records of Azhar Ali and Tim Paine since their careers entered this new stage at the age of 32, right up to the present day.
Tim Paine: 26 matches, 1008 runs at 30.54.
Azhar Ali: 17 matches, 917 runs at 28.65.
Captains, at an age when their contemporaries had already retired
Within six months, the ball-tampering saga saw Paine elevated to the national captaincy, at the age of 33 years and 4 months.
He has never really been fully embraced as skipper in Australia, even though he is universally recognised as the best keeper for decades and the best available leader. The problem is that at his advanced age now everyone can see that his batting has slipped and that Alex Carey is capable of scoring more runs. Paine himself at every interview repeats that at his age, his place in the team is a series-by-series proposition, and that as soon as he stops performing he will retire. He even refuses to commit to remaining skipper until the World Test Championship Final in June 2020.
Azhar Ali could not be more different. He was only appointed skipper 12 weeks before his 35th birthday, and he has had the following averages in his last 4 Test series outside Asia:
3.00
16.75
9.83
15.50
So similar, but so different.
One sees himself as a stopgap, the other sees himself as the long-term skipper.
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