Test chance won't slip Paine's once flimsy grip

Seven years after his right index finger was reduced to a repository for surgical pins and plates, and his ambitions for a Test cricket career seemed similarly broken beyond repair, Tim Paine knows the chance to pen a new life story is now within his once flimsy grip.

Ever since Paine, at that stage 25 and clear understudy to then Test keeper Brad Haddin, badly damaged the finger keeping wickets in an 'All-Stars' T20 fixture staged by the Australian Cricketers' Association he has been accompanied by a 'how good could he have been?' narrative.

Now that he has been plucked from his newly defined role as second-string gloveman for his Tasmania state team to act as custodian in the Magellan Ashes Series that begins at the Gabba (where he was so cruelly injured in 2010) on Thursday, a fresh page has been turned.

And while the now 32-year-old understands that a key criterion for his recall is the experience and stability he offers for the most coveted Test campaign on Australia's calendar, he has no intention of allowing the job to be prised from his reconstituted grip once this summer is done.

When the opportunity to slot in a promising youngster – as Paine so demonstrably was before the break and the unsuccessful bouts of surgery that followed – against less daunting opponents might tempt the national selectors to engage in a bit of succession planning.

"I'm not here for five minutes, I'm here to make the most of this opportunity," Paine said today, marking out turf that few earnestly believed he would have the chance to once more tread.

"To be honest, I'm sick of talking about being the person who hurt his finger and what could have been six or seven years ago. 

"That's the way I'm looking at this opportunity. 

"Hopefully. I can be sitting in a room like this (media conference) in two years or three years and we're talking about the back end of my Test career, not 'geez, he could have been a good player back in 2009'. 

"That's something that's really exciting for me, is to be able to re-write my story a bit and it's something I'm really keen to do."

But before those chapters take shape, Paine must face another round of questions about the extent of the damage he initially sustained, the frustration he endured through the years he spent trying to get it fixed, and how it continues to impact his day-to-day professional functionality.

The answer to the first is, quite bluntly, a lot.

While the initial fracture was severe, the attempts to repair it delivered even greater anguish as comebacks were abandoned and his place in the highly competitive pecking order of Australian wicketkeepers slid increasingly lower.

"It just wouldn't get better, then when it did I'd start to train again and it'd break again," he told reporters in Brisbane.

"The fact that the break across the top (of the finger) was quite big, and because I was holding the bat, the bottom had sort of shattered a little bit. 

"So when you're trying to pin the top to fix the crack, I don't think the rest of my finger was holding together. 

"As soon as it started to move, it'd break apart."

The inevitable follow-up query as to the mental and technical battles he's waged to keep playing the game that he admits remains an unquenched passion, even through seven years of frustration and uncertainty, meets with a well-prepared response.

The damaged digit is still held together by "seven, maybe eight pins and a plate across the top".

"Most of the bone is (sourced from) my hip," Paine adds.

"Apparently it's quite strong."

As is his tolerance for pain, which takes care of the final question.

Wicketkeepers, by trade, are hardy souls who habitually wince, fling off a gauntlet or – as England's gloveman Jonny Bairstow displayed in recent days – animatedly kick the turf to show they've been hurt but rarely admit to significant injury lest they open the door to a rival.

Even now, the Tasmanian claims that his duties behind the stumps were less impacted by the ailment than was his batting which – given the changed criteria by which keepers are now judged – proved even more problematic to his hopes of reclaiming lost ground.

It was through the input of Tasmanian sports psychologist Emma Harris rather than net sessions and technical drills that the results began to flow.

"You only have to look at my numbers in those few years when I came back," Paine said.

"I was battling mentally, I was out there thinking I was going to get hit and if I did get hit that I'd never play again. 

"It certainly rattled me a lot. 

"The first step was actually going to speak to someone about that and be honest about it, that I was really battling.

"I feel in a really good place with it."

So much so that when his childhood mate and fellow gloveman Matthew Wade returned to his home state Tasmania from Victoria earlier this year, it was decided that Paine would play for the Tigers as a specialist batter so that then Test keeper Wade could retain the gloves.

What hasn't been resolved is, now that Paine has usurped his teammate in the Baggy Green cap, who will claim the role should both of them be included in the same starting XI at state level.

Image Id: 51B197DE942148A78615C6624D458B0C Image Caption: Wade keeps for Victoria as Paine bats for Tasmania in a 2010 Shield clash // Getty

"I've known Matt (Wade) since I was about 12," Paine said.

"We played in the same backyard cricket comp at Wadey's cousins – it's an extraordinary story. 

"My brother still can't believe he hasn't been given the call from Cricket Australia as a wicketkeeping coach. 

"All he had was a tennis ball and a tennis racquet and he's produced two Test keepers. 

"He's up (in Brisbane) this week so I'm sure he'll introduce himself to Pat (Howard, Cricket Australia's Executive General Manager Team Performance)."

2017-18 International Fixtures:

Magellan Ashes Series

First Test Gabba, November 23-27. Buy tickets

Second Test Adelaide Oval, December 2-6 (Day-Night). Buy tickets

Third Test WACA Ground, December 14-18. Buy tickets

Fourth Test MCG, December 26-30. Buy tickets

Fifth Test SCG, January 4-8 (Pink Test). Buy tickets

Gillette ODI Series v England

First ODI MCG, January 14. Buy tickets

Second ODI Gabba, January 19. Buy tickets

Third ODI SCG, January 21. Buy tickets

Fourth ODI Adelaide Oval, January 26. Buy tickets

Fifth ODI Perth TBC, January 28. Join the ACF

Prime Minister's XI

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Buy tickets

Gillette T20 INTL Series

First T20I Australia v NZ, SCG, February 3. Buy tickets

Second T20I – Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Buy tickets

Third T20I – Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Buy tickets

Fourth T20I – NZ v England, Wellington, February 13

Fifth T20I – NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I – NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final – TBC, Eden Park, February 21