The Test: A New Era for Australia's Team - Second Season

I really wasn't enjoying where the Australian cricket team

was heading before the sandpaper stuff happened.

I didn't think we were playing the game in the right spirit.

And the rest of the world hated us.

They thought we were dicks.

Amazon Prime Video has revealed their top titles,

and sitting at number one is that much talked about cricket documentary.

Yeah, The Test.

This is a behind the scenes look into the rebuilding of the reputation

of the Australian cricket team after that 2018 sandpaper scandal.

Some of you have got so many fucking theories.

We got a fucking series coming out of this fucking thing

and you're not even good enough for that series yet.

I did watch the docu last time around.

Um...

I saw bits of it, yeah.

Yup, I saw, um...

Yeah, I saw most, most of it. Yeah.

No, I never watched it.

I don't really like watching myself back and doing things.

No, I lived it.

Still got two Test matches.

Keep nailing the process we got in place to beat these blokes,

it's going to work.

What Paine did at his time as captain was incredible.

Paine was just a great people person.

The way he led us through that time.

Paine, he was just a great Australian captain.

A lot of you keep thinking about,

not just for this Test match, but every time you play for Australia,

remember who you're representing.

I genuinely believe that JL brought humility back in the Australian team.

You're representing the whole country.

Here are the expectations,

here are the values, and we needed to hear that.

Good heading.

Yes, push some pace.

We need someone to, you know, tell us how to hold us to that.

Marnus, very good.

You know, what he saw in me? I don't know

if everyone saw that.

So, you know, I've got a lot to thank him for.

We can beat them and we will beat them.

Tim Paine and Justin Langer come in

and do a rescue mission for Australian cricket.

They get it back on an even keel.

Then within 12 weeks both of them are gone.

Where does that leave Australian cricket?

I felt like this Ashes series, we had a full squad of players

that were, like, ready to go, top of their game.

Just a bit more experienced.

It had been in our calendar for,

you know, a long time and we were all ready.

It was just about how we're gonna win the Ashes.

How we're gonna get one up on England?

In '19, we went out and played extremely good cricket

and did something pretty special.

But we just didn't put the icing on the cake and finish them off.

It was great to retain the Ashes away,

but, um I still felt, you know, we never actually won anything.

Mate, my defence was...man,

I've got, like, 100 with Josh Hazlewood

We hadn't seen Paine in quite a while

because he's...obviously just plays the Test matches.

I was still looking forward to getting the Test group back together

and the spirits were quite high.

Um, where was I?

I was...

I think I was at...

We just got, like, a random text.

Yeah, kind of was just all out of the blue.

Thanks for coming, everyone.

I'm just gonna make a brief statement.

I won't be taking any questions today.

Today, I'm announcing my decision to stand down

as the captain of the Australian Men's Test Team.

It's an incredibly difficult decision,

but the right one for me, my family, and cricket.

We begin with breaking news on an Australian cricket bombshell.

On the eve of the Ashes series, Tim Paine has stood down

over allegations he sent lewd text messages

to a female former employee of Cricket Tasmania.

I have loved my role

as captain of the Australian cricket team

and it's been the greatest privilege of my sporting life

to lead the Australian Men's Test Team.

I'm grateful for the support of my teammates.

I'm proud of what we've been able to achieve together.

The team now finds themselves without a captain.

This may be the most significant job in Australia...

the captain of the Australian Test Team.

It leaves Australia's preparations for the Ashes in chaos.

He's been our captain for a long time.

He and I have been through a journey like we have with all this group.

He's obviously shattered with what's happened.

Eighteen days before an Ashes Series begins,

and our Australian Test captain... well, we're looking for a new one.

Tim's a very likable guy.

He did something really dumb.

He'll be the first to admit that,

and it was hard to watch what had happened to him.

Tim Paine was entrusted with an awful lot...

the reestablishment of the Australian cricket team.

You know, he stood up

at a time when Australian men's cricket was at its lowest point.

And the difficult thing was who replaces Tim Paine?

Dada.

- He's letting - He know what's high-five.

Who would've thought?

High-five.

Dada.

Dada, dada, dada

Dadada.

I feel like our life is making baby noises...

- Yeah. - ...trying to get him to repeat them.

Um, my dad loved motorsport,

Formula One, and a bit of rugby.

Apart from that, there was no sport in our household.

Um, no football, no cricket, so when I came over,

I didn't honestly even know you could play cricket for a living.

And Pat, um, told me... actually, he lied to me.

- Told me he was a, um... - I didn't lie.

White lie.

It wasn't a lie because you were a student.

- Told me he was a student. - Yup.

Walked past the KFC.

I saw a picture of Pat's head with a bucket on his head,

and I was like, "What?"

And then, when I got to work and told the girls,

we went on Twitter. We were looking at Twitter, so innocent.

Um, and they had blue tick, and I was like,

"The guy's got a blue tick." So, got you in a lie with that blue tick.

Good boy.

- Kick it. Yay! - Yay.

When you were gonna have Abby,

the biggest thought process for cricket was

cricket takes so much of my time and effort.

Like what's...?

Having a baby, like, is that...

am I gonna be as good?

Am I gonna be able to concentrate as much?

- So proud. - Ready?

I remember chatting to Scotty Boland about it

and I was like, "But what happens if you're tired and you gotta play?"

And he goes, "Well, you're tired and you play."

I was like, "Okay. Yeah, that makes sense."

Yeah, you just do it.

When Paine announced he was stepping down as captain,

half of me was trying to be a dad and help Becky and Abby.

And the other half was...

well, the Ashes is starting in two or three weeks and I might be captaining.

NEW CAPTAIN

Australia has a new cricket captain tonight and he's a local.

Western Sydney's Pat Cummins.

The announcement this afternoon ended days of speculation

following the resignation of Tim Paine.

It really is an historic day with Pat Cummins unveiled

as our 47th Test captain and he's the first fast bowler

to lead the team since Ray Lindell back in 1956.

Yeah, it was just a really surreal moment.

It's not like I did anything. I just went to sleep one day

and woke up the next day,

and... and I was Australian Captain.

Pat's dropped in the deep end

two weeks before the biggest tour on the Australian calendar.

I think probably just to start we begin the soft trial,

show the coaches how you want to run, what you're looking for.

There are so many little jobs as a captain come up,

which I've just never experienced.

The Australian game day is so,

after a batting game with the chaps,

we'll get together pretty quickly.

Working, like, ten minutes or so once we get in.

Kind of the gut feeling but didn't get the process right, I think.

Because, you know, as the new captain,

everyone's going to have an opinion.

I think they're not completely world upside down,

but I felt like it was for that week.

I'm a big believer in concentrating

on our own game and making sure that's in order.

I remember that feeling of going,

I'm not sure how this is going to work.

Australia didn't just lose its captain in Tim Paine,

it lost its wicket keeper,

and suddenly there's that glaring vacancy

heading into an Ashes as well.

Oh, it's definitely a wrecking ball.

Paine not being there, um, probably more

because he's probably the best keeper I've ever bowled to.

Yeah. Tim did a fantastic job with the group.

The test team had a lot of success under his watch,

and I think he was one of the best guardsmen that this country has seen.

They were fortunate that they had Alex Carey there.

He'd done his time in the one day team.

I don't think he ever imagined he'd be playing that first test.

You know, you have a lot of thoughts that go through your head,

like, shit, how are you gonna go?

And then, we had to wait until that first Test at the Gabba,

and that's sort of when it hit me, it's like, "Well, that's pretty real."

See you.