Former Australia captain Tim Paine has made further steps forward in his coaching career. According to ESPNcricinfo, Cricket Australia (CA) has hired him in a ‘consultancy’ where he’ll work with the Australia ‘A’ team and the women’s first team, while coaching Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League on the side. The report said Paine’s new stint will begin with leading the Australia ‘A’ team in three 50-over matches and two four-day games against Sri Lanka ‘A’ in July. He’ll then lead Australia ‘A’ on a tour of India in September and October before coaching them for a one-off four-day game against the England Lions. Paine has previously worked with multiple development teams in Australia, including as an assistant coach under CA’s national development coach Lachlan Stevens when India ‘A’ played two first-class games in the lead-up to the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year. The report said Stevens has left his job. In Sri Lanka, Paine will be assisted by national pace bowling coach Adam Griffith, national women’s team assistant coach Scott Prestwidge and Northern Territory Cricket’s Pathway and Development coach Trent Keep. Tim Paine backed Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne Paine has also been working as a pundit. After Australia’s defeat in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, he had backed Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne, saying the country was too ‘quick’ to move on from players. “With England coming out for the Ashes, those high-quality international cricketers do not grow on trees. Great players are hard to replace. I’m backing both of those two to have a big 12 months,” he said in a video shared by SEN Cricket. “We’re very quick in this country, particularly with the cricket team, to move on players. If you look back to just before he retired to the six months leading into that, and the guy is one of our best ever cricketers, and everyone in the media and the casual cricket was ‘Oh, he’s gotta go.’ We’re two years down the track and we still haven’t cemented his replacement,” he added. Labuschagne has since been dropped for the first Test against the West Indies next week, with Sam Konstas set to open alongside Khawaja.