“Not going to play Test cricket again” – Aaron Finch

“Not going to play Test cricket again” – Aaron Finch

Aaron Finch

Cricket.com.au reports that Australia’s limited-overs captain, Aaron Finch will not be available for selection at next week’s Shield match against Tasmania after scoring 67 (100) in today’s Marsh One-Day Cup loss to Western Australia. A captain of the limited-overs side of the Australian cricket team rejects the chance to play Sheffield Shield cricket again and give a spot to a talented young player.

According to the 35-year-old, playing red-ball cricket again is pointless.

“I don’t think I’ll play again,” he said. “There’s no point, I’m not going to play Test cricket again so the younger guys in our squad, there’s some really talented players, so there’s no point me taking up one of those spots when they can be getting really valuable game time. I love playing red-ball cricket, but it’s just reality. Unless you’re pushing for a Test match, I don’t really see the point to be honest.”

He also confirmed he won’t be pushing for selection next year as the home T20 World Cup will commence next summer followed by international white-ball matches. Aaron Finch last appeared in a first-class match 822 days ago, when Victoria’s Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia was abandoned after the first day because of a dangerous pitch at the MCG. He didn’t get even a chance to bat.

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Aaron Finch’s career

Aaron Finch

At the Junction Oval, Aaron Finch made his first-class debut against an Indian touring side when the match was halted by rain in December 2007. His career has yielded 4,915 runs at 35.87 in 88 matches, including 288 not out for Cricket Australia XI against New Zealand in 2015. Over the course of his first-class career, he has scored seven centuries and 33 half-centuries. The highlight of his career was his Test debut against Pakistan in October 2018. With 278 runs at 27.8 and 62 as his highest score, Aaron Finch played in five Test matches, the last of which he played against India on Boxing Day in 2018.

In preparation for the limited-overs series against Pakistan later this month, Australia’s one-day opener spent some time in the middle on Tuesday. He will begin training for the ODI series and the sole T20I later this month. Finch’s performance was his best since the Melbourne Renegades‘ final match of KFC BBL 11 following a sluggish T20 series against Sri Lanka that produced 78 runs in five innings at under a run-a-ball (91.76).

“It’s always nice to go into a series getting some runs but that’s still a couple of weeks away so now it’s just down to a couple of weeks of training, I feel like I’m hitting it nicely; I’m just tinkering a little bit with my technique and a few really minor changes, so it’s just about trying to get them implemented as quick as I can.”, Finch said.

According to Aaron Finch, today’s six-wicket loss to a Western Australia side that featured Shaun Marsh, Jhye Richardson, AJ Tye and D’Arcy Short serves as a lesson for his young teammates.

“You’re not going to come up against many bigger challenges than that on a really difficult wicket against some world-class bowlers, It was a great learning experience for our guys. They put us on the back foot early and they were pretty clinical. (There was) a lot for our batting group to learn and it’s disappointing we couldn’t post more and try and put a little bit of scoreboard pressure on.”, he added.

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