Glad being a vice-captain, Paine is brilliant: Pat Cummins

Sydney, April 4:  Australias Test skipper Tim Paine might consider deputy Pat Cummins a contender for the captains job once he hangs his boots, but the pacer has made it clear that while it is nice to hear such words from the captain, he is currently happy being the vice-captain of the national team.

"It's nice to hear, (I) don't think it makes me want it more or less. I'm glad being a vice-captain underneath him that I get that nod. He's brilliant," Cummins was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

"Like I've said a hundred times before, I kind of feel it's not quite right talking about captaincy now when we've got someone like Painey and Finchy (limited-overs captain Aaron Finch) doing great jobs. We'll see down the track, but at the moment it's bit of a moot point."

Interestingly, Cummins has no leadership experience when it comes to first-class cricket and the Aussie feels it is a situation which obviously isn't an everyday story.

"In the perfect world, your first experience of being captain - say Australian captain, you've (already) had quite a bit of experience leading and you know exactly what it entails. But things don't always work out as exactly as you planned," he said.

Earlier, Paine made it clear that former skipper Steve Smith isn't the only guy in fray to take over when the wicket-keeper calls it a day. The Sandpaper Gate fiasco in 2018 saw Paine take over as Australia skipper.

"We've got a number of guys to choose from who can put their hand up. There's Steve Smith, who's done it before, or the people who are developing underneath like a Travis Head or an Alex Carey -- Marnus Labuschagne and Pat Cummins are other ones.

"We're starting to build some real depth so that when my time's up we've got a number of options," Paine told reporters.