Who is Tim Paine?

On the third day of the third Test at Cape Town, Australia wicketkeeper Tim Paine was suddenly asked to captain the side in an emergency. When video evidence showed the Australians illegally tampering with the ball , which captain Steve Smith later admitted to, it forced a change in leadership midway through the Test.

The shocking scandal and reactions that followed meant that both captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner couldn't be trusted with leadership roles in the immediate future. Paine was the surprise choice as stop-gap captain for the rest of the game and subsequently for the fourth and final Test of the series. If this seemed unexpected, his recall to the Test side last year after seven years was just as surprising.

Paine made his Australia debut back in 2009 in England. He scored his first hundred in a one-day international against England at Trent Bridge. At the time, Brad Haddin was Australia's first-choice wicketkeeper. Paine made his Test debut against Pakistan at Lord's in 2010 – incidentally Smith's debut Test too - scoring 7 and 47. He was impressive with the bat during the Tests in India later that year, scoring 92 and 59. Paine, who was filling in for the injured Haddin, looked like he was pushing his senior colleague for a regular stint in the Test side.

Unfortunately, an untimely finger injury during a T20 match in November that year sidelined Paine and he soon went out of the reckoning with Matthew Wade and Peter Nevill ahead of the him in the queue. He played a handful of ODIs and T20s for Australia in 2011, but that was followed by a lengthy period away from the national side.

He was impressive for his State side Tasmania and captained the team too. He made his Australia comeback after a gap of six years when he was picked for the T20 squad in 2017. Still, when he made it to the Test squad for the Ashes later that year, not many were expecting it. Paine, already in his 30s, was preferred over younger options. Trevor Hohns, the Australian selection chief, explained that Paine was considered to be the “best gloveman in the country” but it was nevertheless a tough choice. Paine's batting form too had impressed the selectors.

Since his Test comeback, Paine has scored one fifty. For the fourth Test at Johannesburg, he will take charge of a team fighting to square the Test series, without two of their best batsmen. For now the arrangement is a stop gap, but with Smith and Warner banned for a year – pending a likely appeal – he could be in for a longer stint.