'Few players might have reservations in travelling to Pakistan': Tim Paine

Australia Test skipper Tim Paine has admitted that a few players might have reservations about travelling to Pakistan. Australia are set to visit Pakistan for a full tour in March next year. The team will play three Tests, three ODIs and one T20I on the tour. Paine said that a few players might want to think twice before giving their nod for the series. Recently, New Zealand and England had cancelled their tours citing security issues.

“There’ll be some guys who will be happy to take the experts’ advice, and others will want to know a bit more,” Paine said on SEN on Tuesday morning. “If we’re totally honest, there might be some people who aren’t comfortable going regardless.

The series will get underway on March 3, with the first Test in Karachi, followed by the second and third Test from March 12-16 and March 21-25 in Rawalpindi and Lahore respectively. The limited-overs games will be played from March 29-April 5 in Lahore.

Pakistan have managed to host a few international teams in the country in the last couple of years. However, most of the teams were not at their full strength with big players opting out of the tour. When asked if Australia will go in with a full-strength squad, Paine said it’s difficult to comment on the same as it will depend on the individual if he wants to be part of the series or not.

“That’s happened before with tours going to other countries going back forever. Again there are issues that will I’m sure pop-up. We’ll discuss it, people get the right answers and feel comfortable, then we’ll get hopefully the best team we can. At the end of the day, it comes down to the individual,” he added.

Paine was part of the World XI team that played in Pakistan in 2017. The skipper revealed that the security during the series was something he had never seen before. “The security that we had on that tour was unlike anything that I’ve ever seen in my life,” Paine said. “We had helicopters overhead, roads shut down five kilometers around us, checkpoints like every kilometer into the ground, it was extraordinary,” he said.