Berry’s preferred choice to replace Paine as Australia’s Test keeper

Queensland wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson is Darren Berry’s preferred choice to replace Tim Paine as Australia’s Test gloveman.

Peirson has peeled off two Sheffield Shield hundreds already this season, taking his season aggregate to 265 runs in six innings at an average of 53.

Paine relinquished the Test captaincy last week after a serious of lewd text messages to a former colleague at Cricket Tasmania were made public, but he remains available for selection.

If Paine isn’t picked for the upcoming Ashes series, Berry thinks Peirson should be next in line, praising the 29-year-old’s glovework and “improved” form with the bat.

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“I always go for the best wicketkeeper, so people can disagree,” the champion Victorian keeper told SEN Drive.

“If you want the next best wicketkeeper, I’m going for Jimmy Peirson from Queensland.

“The most improved player, and a lot of people will go, ‘What?’ In the last three or four years, James Peirson glovework has been outstanding in both Shield and the Big Bash, he’s improved enormously with the bat and is now more than reliable and a very capable batsman, I think he’s scored two Shield hundreds already this year.

“Peirson’s my choice, but that won’t happen. It’ll be Alex Carey or Josh Inglis and I think they might go to Carey for Test cricket. If it was short format, they might look at Inglis because of his explosive batting.

“I would go Peirson, I think the selectors will go Carey, but I hope they go Paine.”

Paine, 36, is no certainty to continue playing Test cricket after the Ashes.

Peirson averages 33 with the bat across his 47-game first-class career.