Third-ball duck adds to Aaron Finch's horror run
Aaron Finch is in further jeopardy of forcing the selectors’ hands ahead of the Cricket World Cup, falling for a third-ball duck in Australia’s ODI series opener against India.
Coach Justin Langer vowed this week to be patient during Finch’s slump, which dates back to last July and spans 20 white-ball innings without reaching 50.
But with the World Cup starting in just under three months, Langer’s patience will presumably have a breaking point.
Finch has a further four games in the current series to find form before Australia travel to the UAE for a five-match series against Pakistan.
Australia must then name their 15-man World Cup squad by April 23.
Aaron Finch average since start of 2018/19 season:
Test: 27.80
ODI: 11.85
T20I: 7.50#INDvAUS— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) March 2, 2019
Deary me…another duck for Aaron Finch. It’s getting nasty.
— Daniel Cherny 📰 (@DanielCherny) March 2, 2019
Aaron Finch now has scored a duck in his last Test series, T20I series and ODI series against India.
— muhammad Noman (@muhamma62025313) March 2, 2019
I think Aaron Finch is a great captain. He’s tactically smart and rotates his bowlers well. But it may be best now to give the captaincy to someone else, because the last thing he needs is to carry that burden while he tries to find his own form. #INDvAUS
— Tom Carpenter (@Carpo34) March 2, 2019
Aaron Finch needs a break or needs to be releived from captaincy asap, its devestating to see such a destructive batsmen struggle like this. #INDvAUS
— Rahul Dhowan (@rahuldhowan1994) March 2, 2019
The prospect of Finch missing the cut was unthinkable when he was appointed limited-overs captain in 2018, the same year he was Australia’s leading ODI run-scorer with 493, and he has been a major part of World Cup planning.
Yet if the opener is unable to bank a big score this month then selectors may be forced to wield the axe and find a new skipper.
Finch was out edging in Hyderabad on Saturday, defeated by the top-ranked ODI bowler in the world Jasprit Bumrah for the second time on tour.
The 32-year-old shouldered arms to the first ball he faced, played and missed, then nudged forward to a fine delivery that seamed off the deck and took the edge that MS Dhoni gleefully accepted.
Finch, speaking on match eve in Hyderabad, expressed confidence in himself and rejected Mark Waugh’s critique about his state of mind.
Speculation about Finch’s place in the XI had already kicked off before the match, with Mark Waugh declaring after the first T20 that Finch “looks mentally gone”.
“Mark comes out and says quite a few things every now and then. Some of them don’t make a hell of a lot of sense, a lot of the time,” Finch said.
“Mentally gone? He hasn’t been around the side, he’s been commentating most of it from Sydney, so don’t know how he’s come to that decision.”
Finch believes he is already starting to benefit from some minor changes to his technique, even if results are yet to show on the scoreboard.
“It’s never easy when the captain of your side is not scoring as many runs as they would have liked,” Finch said.
“I want to lead from the front with the bat and I honestly don’t think it’s far away.
“I’m really confident going into this series. It might sound strange after missing out for quite a while but I feel really comfortable where my game is at, where it’s going.
“At times, you’re prepared to wear a little bit of short-term pain for long-term gain. This has been a bit longer pain than I would have hoped for.”
with AAP
