Tim Paine said he will consider his role as Australian Test skipper at the end of next summer’s Ashes series and flagged his support of Steve Smith should he regain the long-form captaincy.
Paine spoke at length about leadership and captaincy during an interview at the Chappell Foundation fundraiser dinner at the SCG on Wednesday night.
Asked if he had thought about when he might retire from the captaincy, Paine said he would be in the role for "at least another six Tests".
Australia will play one Test against Afghanistan next summer, followed by five Tests against England.
"If I feel like the time is right and we've beaten the Poms 5-0, what a way to go out," said Paine.
"But it might be a tight series and we might be chasing 300 on the last day and I'm 100 not out and hit the winning runs and then I might go again."
There has been increasing speculation surrounding Australia’s succession plan for the post-Paine era, made more complicated in the aftermath of the Newlands ball-tampering scandal, which saw David Warner banned from any future Australian captaincy role and Smith excluded from consideration for two years, a period which expired last year.
Smith told Newscorp in March that he would be keen to return to the role.
"If it was what Cricket Australia wanted and it was what was best for the team at the time, it’s certainly something I would be interested in now, that’s for sure," said Smith.
Paine made his return to the Australian Test side under Smith during the 2017-18 Ashes series that preceded the disastrous South Africa tour, when Paine was installed as captain in the wake of Smith’s sacking.
He praised Smith’s tactical abilities and said he believes the former leader has grown since the early days of his captaincy.
"Obviously I don't make that decision but the time I played with Steve as captain he was excellent,” said Paine.
"Certainly tactically he is as good as you get. He's probably a bit like me when I was at the start of my captaincy journey in Tasmania, he was thrown into a very big role at a very, very young age and he probably wasn't quite ready for it.
"But by the time I came in he was growing into that role and getting better and better. Then obviously South Africa events happened and he's not doing it anymore. But yeah I would support him getting that job again.”
Pat Cummins has also been widely mooted as a contender for the role whenever Paine vacates it, despite Australia’s traditional hesitancy in choosing a fast bowler as captain.
Paine spoke about his own challenges when he was suddenly handed the job at a time of enormous upheaval in Australian cricket and warned against coveting the job too eagerly.
"In my experience the guy who wants it too much is probably not the best option," Paine said.
"So if Charlie [Paine’s son] does come up and says he wants to be captain of Australia, I'd say just lower your expectations and worry about being a good player and a good team man and whatever happens from that would happen.”
