Paine on leave; Cummins named captain for Ashes

Instead, he shone amid the gloom in a beautiful spell with the second new ball as NZ made constant inroads into India’s batting, despite a century on debut from Shreyas Iyer.

Southee took four wickets in the first session and ended with 5-69 from 27.4 overs as India were dismissed for 345 after the hosts had resumed their first innings at 258-4 at Green Park.

Kanpur is regarded as one of the most polluted cities in the world and the Air Quality Index was reported as climbing into the ‘hazardous’ zone for the players after the smog was also prevalent on day one.

That didn’t bother Southee, even after he had an lbw appeal rejected in his opening over on day two against Ravindra Jadeja that NZ reviewed unsuccessfully, as he removed the same batter the next over.

While Iyer went happily about his business with a string of boundaries that helped him score a maiden test century, Southee kept chipping away at the rest of the

Former Australian test captain Tim Paine is taking indefinite leave from the game on mental health grounds, all but ruling him out of the start of the Ashes and casting extreme doubt over his future in international cricket.

It is quite likely now that Paine will not play any part in Australia’s defence of the urn this season and may have worn the baggy green for the final time.

Long-time heir apparent Alex Carey and Western Australia’s Josh home team line-up.

His mastery of outswing removed wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha and Iyer fell first ball after the drinks break.

The 26-year-old made 105 from 171 balls to be the mainstay of a batting line-up missing star performers Virat Kohli, Rohit Shama and KL Rahul, striking 13 fours and two sixes.

Inglis are the leading candidates to take Paine’s place behind the stumps.

A week after stepping down as captain over the release of a lewd text exchange he shared with a former Cricket Tasmania staffer, Paine’s management confirmed the wicketkeeper would be taking time out of the game.

‘‘Confirming that @tdpaine36 is stepping away from cricket for an indefinite mental health break. We are extremely concerned for his and [wife] Bonnie’s well-being and will be

For full coverage of day two of the second test, go to stuff.co.nz

It was Southee’s 13th five-wicket bag in test cricket and took his career haul to 319 scalps as he sits behind only Sir Richard Hadlee (431) and Daniel Vettori (362) in the list of most test wickets for NZ. making no further comment at this time,’’ Paine’s manager James Henderson tweeted yesterday morning.

Given his lack of match practice, it would be extremely difficult for Paine to take any part in the Ashes. The selectors now have the opportunity to make generational change behind the stumps and may be reluctant to alter their path once the new course is taken.

Paine, who underwent neck surgery in September, returned to the field in a second XI game for

New-ball partner Kyle Jamieson went wicket-less on day two, leaving him one short of being the quickest man in NZ test history to 50 wickets, after capturing three wickets on Thursday.

Wicketkeeper Tom Blundell missed a stumping chance off Ajaz Patel when Ravichandran Ashwin waltzed down the wicket and was beaten by a ball that kept low when

Tasmania on Monday, taking nine catches and making one and seven with the bat.

He was to make his comeback to state cricket in Tasmania’s one-day game against Western Australia, but told his state association he would be taking leave.

Paine played 35 tests for his country, 23 of them as captain after taking over from Steve Smith in the wake of the sandpaper scandal in South Africa in 2018.

Meanwhile, allrounder Pat Cummins on 16. There were more deliveries from the left-arm spinner that scuttled through at an alarmingly low height, with the hosts possessing a dangerous threepronged spin attack.

Patel took the first wicket to fall to spin in the first over after lunch when he bowled Ashwin for 38 and doubled his haul with the final wicket of the innings soon after.

has been named as Australia’s 47th male test captain, in a major break from tradition for the top job in Australian cricket. Former captain Smith will serve as his deputy as part of a new leadership team.

Cummins had been the overwhelming favourite to take over from Paine, after being made the sole vicecaptain 12 months ago.

It is Smith’s first official leadership position since being stripped of the captaincy after the ball-tampering scandal in 2018.