With a job offer from Kookaburra on the table and a once very promising Australian career seemingly stalled, Tim Paine concedes he thought his time wearing the wicketkeeping gloves was nearing an end.
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A broken finger nearly seven years ago put Paine's resilience to the test with a longer than expected recovery allowing Matthew Wade to sneak ahead of him as Australia's go to keeper.
Despite a number of setbacks and Kookaburra keen to secure his services off the pitch, something compelled Paine to extend his domestic contract with Tasmania earlier this year and it paid almost immediate dividends.
In February, Paine ended a six-year hiatus from the national team as he donned the gloves once again for his nation in a Twenty20 against Sri Lanka.
Though failing to impress with the bat in that series, Paine did enough with the gloves to get the nod for Australia's upcoming Twenty20 series against India and the 32-year-old concedes his career has taken a much-needed U-turn.
"It's turned around a lot," he said when asked about his career.
"I was looking to probably retire.
"I was going to accept a job with Kookaburra.
"It's turned around really quickly and I'm very grateful that it has."
While eager to impress against India and confident in his own abilities, Paine isn't letting himself get carried away with what awaits him should he have a successful series.
"I know it's a bit of a cliche but someone of my age and in my position it'd be foolish to look too far ahead," Paine said.
"I've tried to keep reminding myself of that as well.
"I think I'm one of the best wicketkeepers in Australia.
"The area that's probably let me down in the last two or three years has probably been my batting.
"I feel that at the moment I'm keeping as well as I ever have, I just need to put some runs on the board."
After a frustrating few years with a finger injury, the Tasmanian isn't dwelling on what could have been.
"For me to sit back and be bitter about what happened would be pretty silly," he said.
"I'm really proud of what I've achieved in cricket and I'll always look back on it fondly, not at what might have been."
Australia's first Twenty20 match against India will get underway on Sunday morning (12.30am AEDT) in Ranchi.
India were convincing 4-1 series winners in their recent ODI series against Australia.
