Cricket World Cup: Aaron Finch proving astute captaincy pick to both manage egos and make runs

Australia needs a reliable, sturdy character with a small ego who can support and in no way threaten four or five insecure big stars around him, someone who is not involved in any power struggles. Enter Aaron Finch.

Aaron Finch is back in form after a lean spell.

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Australia settled on its World Cup captain at five minutes to midnight but it was worth the wait.

They got the right man.

In 30 years time when trivia experts ask who captained Australia at the 2019 cricket World Cup there may be many arched eyebrows and scratched cheeks before the light bulb flashes and the name Aaron Finch is written down.

It will not jump out of the caramel coloured pages of history like a Ponting or a Border but this is a sound choice.

It takes a strong man to admit his weaknesses — especially when he is a leader — and Finch has impressed many with the unpretentious way he is a leading a side in which one stray match could cause an inferno.

Aaron Finch is back in form after a lean spell.

His candidness in a recent interview on SEN with Gerard Whateley was refreshing because it was so different from what we expected.

Captains under siege are notorious for masking their inner doubts but Finch conceded his “huge anxiety’’ over his Cup selection and how India “were all over me’’ and the sight of Jasprit Bumrah at the top of his mark taunted and haunted him.

You can’t hide the obvious. Finch has been out of form and his most important duty at the Cup will be to revive his run-making ability.

But his endearing, self-deprecating ways struck me on the set of Cricket 360 during the summer when I asked him did he think bowlers would more frequently target his off stump given he was being bowled so often.

“Wouldn’t you?’’ was his candid reply.

Aaron Finch is the reliable, sturdy character Australia need at the moment.

Some cricket teams need master motivators as leaders.

Some need the stone-faced cement of Border, the cavalier lead-from-the-front bravado of a Ponting, the conjuring skills of a Michael Clarke.

This one needs a reliable, sturdy character with a small ego who can support and in no way threaten four or five insecure big stars around him, someone who is not involved in any power struggles.

It’s needs a Captain Steadfast. Not all captains lead from the front. Some do just as well pulling the strings from behind.

When it comes to field-settings you would not mention Finch in the same breath as Clarke, and his teammates have chipped him that his body language can be too downcast for the teams best interests (he is working on it).

The Smith and Clarke show led Australia to World Cup glory in 2015.

My first sighting of Finch was many years ago at a Saturday morning media training course at Channel 9 in Brisbane during a session with Cricket Academy students.

The pre-session notes handed to me about him said “down to earth, sincere, no frills, quite taciturn but no side to him and a solid bloke.’’

That was more than a decade ago and this description has not aged much at all.

Before Finch was appointed World Cup skipper it was understood the selectors were considering rushing Tim Paine into the post if Finch failed in the final 50 over series against Pakistan.

They certainly don’t have to apologise for the thought. Finch was badly out of form. They wanted him as captain but in a side suddenly bristling with batting options they couldn’t choose him on thin air.

Eventually he came good and for all the challenges await this team in terms of the Smith-Warner integration, crowd-baiting and even sorting out the pace attack, Australia can feel heartened that a steady hand is on the steering wheel.