Hobart, Jan 14 (IANS): The banter between Australian captain and wicketkeeper Tim Paine and his Indian counterpart behind the stumps Rishabh Pant was one of the highlights of India's historic tour of Australia last year. Among Paine's many jibes at his younger colleague was the one in which he asked if Pant could babysit for him and his wife after the series is done.

This was followed by Paine's wife posting a pic on her Instagram story with Pant and the couple's kids which went viral. Paine said while doing commentary for a Big Bash League match on Monday that they had decided to get into Pant due to the latter's tendency to play loose shots but more due to the fact that the Australians were just bored.

"Geez we were bored, (we) could not get a wicket,'" he said. "Well Ricky (Ponting) knows him quite well - one, he's very, very good, but two, we found out early in that series that sledging him was a waste of time." Ponting is Pant's coach at Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Capitals.

"It just didn't bother him, but what we found was that you could get a real lapse of concentration out of him so we went a bit that way.

"So I just tried to put him off and talk rubbish to try and get him involved because he was likely to play a poor shot at time. But he's a seriously talented player," he said.

About his wife's post going viral, Paine said, "I don't think she was watching. Then I think she had got a bit of it through her Instagram and then she put up that photo on and as it happens, and as it's happened, she had a million new Indian followers the next day so she panicked a little bit that it was on the news."