Aaron Finch thinking of England as first knock back after Zimbabwe series postponed
Australia look increasingly likely to play their first cricket since February in England after the cancellation of Zimbabwe’s tour, with Aaron Finch content to go in to a biosecurity bubble in the COVID-19 ravaged UK.
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Australian white ball captain Aaron Finch is mentally preparing to go to England for his next game of cricket but knows that there is no certainty in the COVID-19 environment.
A three game one-day series against Zimbabwe, scheduled for August in Australia, was postponed on Tuesday amid concerns for the health and safety of players and match officials.
The next series on the Australian calendar is a three-match T20 series against West Indies, set to begin on October 4 in Townsville as a warm-up for the T20 World Cup.
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But with the World Cup unlikely to go ahead, Australian coach Justin Langer said earlier this month he hoped a limited-overs tour of England could be arranged for September.
Finch said things were “up in the air” and he had no definitive information on when, or where his next game would be.
He said a tour could present itself at “short notice” pending travel restrictions, which could mean playing the games against New Zealand which were abandoned in March.
But Finch said he was ready to go to England to get cricket “up and going again” having seen the benefits of live sport in action again in Australia.
“It’s a little bit up in the air, just with how quickly everything is changing. In Victoria we are going the other way again,” he said.
“We’re not exactly sure when our next game is going to be. In our mind we were planning for Zimbabwe, we were planning for England, and all going well, I think that was our next game, that’s what we are planning for.
“I am preparing to go to England and play, whether that happens we will wait and see.
“We just have to be really conscious of being ultra flexible. There might be a tour comes up at relatively short notice because we can get there, and that would be brilliant.
“Whatever it takes. The players are all in the same boat, CA, the ACA, whatever we have to do to get a game up and going that is in the best interest of world cricket we’d be up for that.”
The West Indies are currently in England preparing to play a three-Test series, beginning next week, behind closed doors at Southampton‘s Rose Bowl, before playing back-to-back Tests at Old Trafford.
Finch said he’d read about the prospect of being put in a biosecure “bubble” in Southampton, but Cricket Australia had not informed the players about that prospect.
He said there would be a lot of eyes on the series in England, as a blueprint for staging matches in the COVID-19 world.
“Just having world cricket up and running again regardless of who is playing is important. We have seen the impact of having live sport up and running,” Finch said.
“It has huge challenges with international teams going in to different environments and different risk countries.
“It’s going to be a big series for a lot of things and touch wood everything does go well. We just want cricket to be back up and running.”
Originally published as Aaron Finch thinking of England as first knock back after Zimbabwe series postponed