AUSTRALIA coach Justin Langer has admitted captain Tim Paine’s future in the one-day international team is up in the air after the side’s 5-0 series loss to England.

Paine had a tough time in the ODI series, scoring just 36 runs at an average of 7.20 before returning home.

While Langer hailed Paine for the leadership he has given the side since the Cape Town ball-tampering saga, he revealed on SEN’s Whateley that he had been in discussions with chief selector Trevor Hohns over the Tasmanian’s viability as the ODI captain.

“I was with (national selector) Trevor Hohns today and I also said this a few weeks ago, one of our huge priorities is to make sure we get the leadership and the captaincy right,” Langer said on Wednesday.

“No doubt Tim has had a tough time here. He’s done a brilliant job since South Africa in steadying the ship. He’s an outstanding young man.

“We’ve got to work out whether he’s going to play his best cricket in white-ball cricket and if he does he’s a chance, and if he doesn’t then we’ll probably have to look somewhere else.

“We’ll have a really close look at a whole number of things when we get back from England and Zimbabwe next week and we’ll move from there.”

Langer has long been a fan of having the one captain across all three formats, but given the demands of the international schedule as well as Paine’s own role as wicketkeeper, the coach says splitting the role across formats could be a possibility.

“One thing that’s been interesting and goes against my thinking as well, is Joe Root for example, he plays in the one-day team but is captain of the Test team and they split that (captaincy) role with Eoin Morgan,” Langer said.

“I’m starting to recognise really quickly how hectic the schedule is in international cricket.

“They are all things we’re going to have a look at.”

Paine intends to bide his time over deciding on his own white-ball future after the 5-0 series loss.

But while the run of bad results has left Paine unsure about his one-day captaincy, he fully intends to continue leading the Test team. “I haven’t thought about it to be honest,” the 33-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman said after Sunday’s defeat.

“All I know is I was coming here to do this series and I’ve said a few times before, when you are my age it’s a bit foolish to look ahead. “Certainly I am really looking forward to captaining the Test team and continuing how I have been playing in that format.

“But where I go with the rest of my cricket is something we will discuss in the coming weeks.”

Aaron Finch, who is captain of Australia’s Twenty20 outfit, looms as the most logical candidate to replace Paine as ODI skipper if the keeper is dropped.