Aaron Finch and the story of uncredited leadership
Who comes to the mind when you are asked about Australia’s current captain? Tim Paine, right. Though the reality is that he captains and shares only one-third of the burden of leading the Aussies. Aaron Finch is the one leading the ODI and T20 teams of Australia, and yet for some strange reason, Finch has never been recognized the way every other Australian captain has been over the years.
This is despite the fact that he took over a team rattled with the ball-tampering scandal of two of the finest players of Australia, not to mention who were the-then captain and vice-captain too, during 2018. That year was a turmoil for the Kangaroos, although for Finch it was an opportunity that he never would have got.
Handling the reigns
Finch had captained the national side earlier in 2014, but on the brink of the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, the job was handed to Steve Smith in a bid to consolidate the captaincy of all three formats. Finch, then, was ranked as No.1 T20I batsman in the world but found his going tough due to a sudden dip in form. So much so that making a place in the playing eleven too became a challenge. But cut to 2018 and he, much like Tim Paine in Tests, held the most important post in the limited-overs team of Australia.
Finch has not done badly and has quietly grown in stature ever since. He has led Australia to 18 wins in 34 T20Is as captain whereas 19 wins in 35 ODIs. For a man who steadied the ship for his team in such tumultuous times and thereafter won close to 50% matches as a captain, his captaincy is still not regarded as heart-wrenching.
He did hit a rough patch towards the end of 2018, however, successive series wins over India and Pakistan that too in sub-continental conditions saw his stocks as a captain shoot up. In the series against India, he performed well with that bat as he scored 162 runs in 3 ODI averaging 81 and a century. The last time Finch led his team to a victory was in front of empty stands at the SCG in March in an ODI against neighbour New Zealand.
Back-to-back boundaries for skipper Finch! Positive start from the Aussies.
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/we7KDjOAfL #AUSvSA pic.twitter.com/exYz66QmjZ
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 9, 2018
The three-match series was abandoned midway in the wake of COVID 19 and Australia has not played a single professional game in five months. Their first assignment after the long break is in England where they will play three T20Is followed by as many ODIs. Finch’s work with the bat in limited-overs has not been in question that often. He has twice held the record for the highest score in a T20I- a career-best 172 versus Zimbabwe in 2018 en route which he surpassed his 156 against England set in 2013.
With the experience of representing 7 IPL franchises apart from Yorkshire and Surrey, he has settled credentials and reputation as a batsman in the shortest format. And 1989 runs from 61 T20Is with a strike-rate close to 156 cannot be complained about. What would be interesting in the upcoming series is to see not the batsman, but how the captain’s career goes ahead.
