{"id":144370,"date":"2021-10-15T00:09:21","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T00:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=144370"},"modified":"2021-10-15T01:01:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T01:01:11","slug":"paine-shattered-by-pucovskis-latest-setback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=144370","title":{"rendered":"Paine 'shattered' by Pucovski's latest setback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Test captain Tim Paine says he was "shattered" by news of Will Pucovski's latest concussion<\/a>, revealing Marcus Harris<\/a> is now the man most likely to partner David Warner<\/a> for this summer's Ashes series.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old, who made a promising Test debut against India last summer, was struck in the nets last week, and while no symptoms were immediately obvious, he began to feel the effects the following day.<\/p>\n

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Speaking on SEN Hobart, Paine said there was "no doubt" Pucovski would have opened the batting in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane in December.<\/p>\n

While the skipper was hopeful Pucovski wouldn't face an extended stint on the sidelines, he conceded Harris is likely to be in the team for the Gabba.<\/p>\n

"He's probably the frontrunner now for that role. He's someone who hasn't had an extended run at Test cricket," Paine said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"For him to potentially now get an extended run at Test cricket, I'm excited to see what he could do.<\/p>\n

"He's just come back from a superb six months over in England playing for Leicestershire in county cricket and we know his first-class record has been outstanding for Victoria for a long time."<\/p>\n

Pucovski has suffered as many as 10 concussions throughout his career, although not all have occurred while batting, and some were from schoolboy football.<\/p>\n

Paine dismissed suggestions Pucovski has a technical issue with short-pitched bowling. <\/p>\n

"You don't average 50 in first class cricket without being a good player of the short ball," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/p>\n

"He had a really bad concussion when he was a kid \u2026 he's more susceptible than other people, he doesn't need to be hit as hard to have some effects on his head."<\/p>\n

Pucovski's only Test to date came at the SCG last summer, when he made 62 and 10, but suffered a shoulder injury in the field that ruled him out for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

The Australian skipper remains optimistic Pucovski could still play a part in the Ashes series.<\/p>\n

"He's still hoping to be ready at some stage this summer," Paine explained.<\/p>\n

"He's got plenty of support around him, and we know how good he is, so there's no need to rush him at the moment. He's 22-23 years of age, he's got a lot of time in the game if we can get it right.<\/p>\n

"(It was) shattering when I found out. I've spoken to him a bit the last few days. He is improving slowly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I don't think it's as bad as some of the others he's had before, but with his history we have to be very careful. I was devastated to hear it's happened again."<\/p>\n

Paine is on his own comeback trail, having had surgery last month on a bulging disc in his neck.<\/p>\n

"I'm doing a bit of pilates, jogging and swimming. I'm moving pretty normally," he said.<\/p>\n

"I hit about 20 balls yesterday, albeit underarm. The only issue at this stage is strength in my left arm.<\/p>\n

"Just being careful with the load I am putting through the spine while there is still some healing going.<\/p>\n

"The movement in my neck is great and I am hoping in the next two weeks I can really start to put my foot down. I can go from zero to 100 really quickly."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian Test captain Tim Paine says he was "shattered" by news of Will Pucovski's latest concussion, revealing Marcus Harris is now the man most likely […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144372,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144370\/revisions\/144372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}