Tim Paine stopped short of hitting back at Sunil Gavaskar, but brushed off the legend’s criticism of the Australia captain’s heckling of Ravichandran Ashwin on the final day of the Sydney Test.

Paine’s behaviour — the skipper had used an expletive during his verbal exchange with Ashwin — was “unbefitting of a national team captain” and “his days as captain are numbered”, Gavaskar had remarked.

Asked if he had made anything of those stinging comments of Gavaskar, Paine replied that the India legend’s words neither affected him nor his team. “Yeah, I’m not going to go into it and get my back and forth with Sunny Gavaskar. I think I am going to win that.

“Look, he’s entitled to his opinion, but it doesn’t affect us one iota. If anything, it’s adding to the Test match, which is great, so Sunny can keep saying what he wants to say.

“But at the end of the day, it’s absolutely nothing to do with him,” Paine said during a virtual conference on the eve of the final Test, which will be broadcast on Sony Six and Sony Ten channels.

He did regret his on-field demeanour the day after the third Test ended, but Paine asserted he wouldn’t shy away from being himself at the Gabba.

“I’ll be myself. I don’t know how many Tests I’ve played, but I think I’ve gone about it in a pretty consistent fashion 99 per cent of the time.

“And if there’s a bit of banter, I’m always up for that. I just have to be aware of the stump mics and be a bit more respectful of the umpires, officials and players,” he said.

Australia will again have a new opening combination as a shoulder injury has ruled Will Pucovski out of the Test, with Marcus Harris set to join David Warner at the top.