Tim Paine losing sleep over devising plan to nullify Ben Stokes

NICK HOWSON AT OLD TRAFFORD: The Australia captain admits England's Headingley match-winning is causing plenty of head-scratching ahead of the fourth Test

The verbal grenades exchanges by England and Australia before and during this Ashes series have been dominated by kidology. But heading into the penultimate international game of the summer, we might finally have found a moment of brutal honesty.

Neither team has wanted to give an inch. Josh Hazlewood questioning Jason Roy's ability to open. Steve Smith refusing to accept he's been troubled by Jofra Archer. Tim Paine insisting Australia were not rattled during the final hour in Leeds.

Weakness have been masked over. Faults rejected. Imperfections dismissed.

In an effort to reject suggestions he might become the latest Australia captain to be undone by an England allrounder, joining the likes of Kim Hughes and Ricky Ponting, Paine revealed that efforts to conquer Ben Stokes have left him bleary-eyed.

VISIT THE ASHES HUB

"I've lost a bit of sleep over how we're going to get him out," he said the Durham allrounder after his 135 kept the Ashes from Australia's grasp at Headingley. 

"He is a class player and he's really confident with how he is going at the moment. Like I said we have some plans for him but we'll have to execute them a bit better. 

"I think Nathan Lyon has bowled well to him each time he has bowled to him. As a fast-bowling group, we can tweak things. 

"But the other side of things is we hold our chances and if we do that then I am sure Gaz (Lyon) can hold things up in the middle order. We've let him down with our fielding.

^{Tim Paine had a front-row seat for Ben Stokes' masterclass}

Despite Marcus Harris shelling an opportunity to dismiss Stokes, Nathan Lyon failing to run-out Jack Leach and the miss-use of the Decision Review System leading to Australia losing the game, Paine was adamant in the aftermath that given that opportunity again with England nine wickets down the same mistakes would not be made again - without explaining as to how.

Now it appears Paine has come to terms with the fielding errors he made during the closing stages. But providing evidence he has learned from those mistakes is an altogether different challenge.

"I would do some different with my field placings," the wicket-keeper added. "There were times when it was really obvious that I should have had the field up and allows Ben to hit more boundaries so we could have more balls at the tail-ender."