Cricket: Australian captain Tim Paine lightened the mood with a hilarious mid-presser phone gag

Tim Paine answered a journalist's phone during the conference. Photo / Twitter

Tim Paine is getting so many solid comedy bits he might take it on the road at the end of his career — and his latest is pure gold.

The Australian skipper was fronting the media after one of the toughest days in the field of his career with two Indian players passing 150.

A downbeat Paine was in the middle of a difficult questioning when one of the journalist's phones started ringing.

"Who's phone's that?" Paine said as he picked up the call.

"Tim Paine speaking. Who is it sorry? Who are you after?"

The exchange had the room laughing as Paine told "Casey from Hong Kong" to "Martin" was "in a press conference, can he call you back?"

Apparently, Casey wanted Martin to check his emails.

Social media quickly reacted to the hilarious exchange.

How can you not love Tim Paine?! https://t.co/74VH7oGTgl

— Neroli Meadows (@Neroli_Meadows) January 4, 2019

Thats' so cool! Good to see Paine's mischievous side 😀 https://t.co/DszOKn4pYC

— Abhaya Srivastava (@abhaya_sri) January 4, 2019

Tim Paine. What a bloke. #AUSvIND

— Caden Helmers (@cadenhelmers) January 4, 2019

Tim Paine is a smart lad. He found the best possible way to dodge a tough question. https://t.co/TSrlNvD5DA

— Madhav Sharma (@HashTagCricket) January 4, 2019

I guess this one even beats @msdhoni press conference where he called a journo on dais and asked him to answer questions on retirement! What say? Dhoni or Paine in sense of humour? @Wahcricketlive @abpnewstv https://t.co/qUofQo0E6R

— G. S. Vivek (@GSV1980) January 4, 2019

It was a tough press conference for Paine with hard questions about how Australia were going in the Test and their goals over the past 12 months.

While Paine was able to offer a lighthearted break to the sombre atmosphere of the conference, he continued to answer the question without skipping a beat.

"One of my goals, every time we play Test cricket for Australia we want to win and clearly we want to move up the rankings," he said.

"A lot of my goals were around the way we went about it and getting the trust and respect back from our fans."

Speaking on SEN after the day's play, Paine said it was a tough day but some days are like that.

"It's certainly difficult, they were batting superbly," Paine said.

"Rishabh Pant's extremely difficult to bowl to when he gets going.

"It wasn't our best day, that's for sure, it hasn't been our best couple of days to be fair with the ball, but you can't fault the guys' effort, they were trying as hard as they could, you just have those days sometimes."

Pant has been a verbal sparring partner with Paine over the Test matches, including his sledge asking about if he can babysit, which his wife Bonnie answered during the week with a hilarious photo.