Cricket news: Aaron Finch fighting to save career after Zimbabwe humiliation
Not many people know Aaron Finch’s game better than his coach and former teammate Andrew McDonald, and he has some simple advice for the under fire captain to regain form.
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Australian coach Andrew McDonald has urged his under-siege captain Aaron Finch to clear his mind of the heat which is rising around him heading into the Twenty20 World Cup.
McDonald admits Finch’s form struggles have become a mental game just as much as a technical issue after three successive failures against Zimbabwe last week intensified the pressure which has been building over the past two years.
Finch is already locked in for the T20 World Cup in seven weeks’ time and has the full backing of his coach and national selector George Bailey, however, he will be fighting to save his 50-over career this week against New Zealand in Cairns.
McDonald knows Finch’s game better than anyone (except perhaps the man himself), as his long-term Victorian teammate, coach and close friend – and believes blocking out the negative thoughts and striding to the middle with confidence is the key to the skipper rediscovering his mojo.
“I think it’ll just be about clearing his mind, clearing his thoughts and going out there and looking to be positive,” said McDonald.
“When he’s positive, his feet move a lot better than potentially when he’s doubting. And that’s every batsman’s case when they feel as though they haven’t got the runs that they want – they search for a little bit more and sometimes that can take away from … just clearing those thoughts and responding to what’s coming down.
“… I think across his career it’s ebbed and flowed – his movement patterns sometimes early in his innings are compromised, whether it be through perceived pressure which he puts upon himself or what the bowler does and executes.
“We know batting is reactive and you react to the stimulus delivered by the bowler and if we can get his mind clear I think that there’s an opportunity there for him to have an impact on that New Zealand series.”
Finch’s Twenty20 numbers this year have been decent, but the question that has come sharply into focus after his new ball struggles against Zimbabwe is his capability to fire in the 50-over format having averaged 14.90 since early 2021.
There is an ODI World Cup in 12 months’ time in India which Cricket Australia have previously stated they want Finch to lead the team to, but unless the captain (who will be 36 by then) can fire against New Zealand some big decisions will need to be made before Australia’s next 50-over series against England in November.
After Saturday’s embarrassing loss to Zimbabwe, Australia now face New Zealand on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday in Cairns, with McDonald anticipating the wickets will be “less spicy” than the decks served up on early mornings in Townsville last week.
By McDonald’s own admission, Australia have precious little time to get their combinations right before next year’s ODI World Cup comes around, and in Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Ben McDermott and Josh Inglis, there are quality options waiting in the wings.
“The balance of the team will start to shift from game to game at times. We haven’t got a hell of a lot of cricket leading into the 2023 World Cup … that’s diminished now into the teens. So we haven’t got many opportunities to make sure we’re ready and prepared,” said McDonald.
“We feel as though the personnel that is here is going to underpin that, with a couple of obvious people who are missing as well.”
McDonald says he has faith Finch will – as he has countless times before in his career – find his feet when it matters most for Australia.
“We’re working through it. He’s working hard on his game. He’s continuing to work on the same things he always works on. It’s about getting a start and then maximising that start,” he said.
“At the moment he hasn’t quite got to that stage, but we feel he can. Hence why he’s still around the group and still a valued member as our captain.”
Finch fighting to save career after Zimbabwe humiliation
Aaron Finch will be fighting to save his ODI career this week after Australia suffered an embarrassing loss to Zimbabwe in Townsville.
Australian selectors have committed to Finch for the fast-approaching Twenty20 World Cup on home soil, but a third successive failure with the bat against Zimbabwe on Saturday has, at the very least, left him hanging by a thread in the 50-over team.
The national captain’s future has arrived at a sudden crossroads, as the world No.13 Zimbabweans bowled Finch’s side out for just 141 before chasing down their first ever win on Australian soil by three wickets.
David Warner was the sole run-scoring contributor for Australia with 94 off 96 balls and set a new ODI record with his 66.67 per cent of runs, the highest proportion ever in a dismissed team’s total.
Josh Hazlewood (3-30) got himself on a hat-trick at one point and threatened to give his side hope of scrambling out of jail, but ultimately it was a humiliating wake-up call for Australia, despite winning the series 2-1.
Zimbabwe captain Regis Chakabva produced a fine captain’s knock of 37 not out to pull off a David versus Goliath upset to match the last time the cricketing minnows beat the Australians in Harare back in 2014 … and there are now some pressing questions for the Australian hierarchy to ask.
At the top of the list is Finch.
Most Victorians go to Cairns for a holiday, but unless Finch can fire against New Zealand in three one-day internationals in the far north this week, it’s difficult to see how the white ball great can continue beyond the T20 World Cup in seven weeks’ time.
Finch made scores of 15, 1 and 5 against Zimbabwe last week, albeit on tricky batting wickets in Townsville, but since the start of 2021 the burly opener has averaged just 14.90 in ODI cricket and the warning signs are now impossible to ignore.
Immediately following the T20 World Cup, Australia will host England in three ODIs and this is the obvious point for selectors to decide whether the skipper – who has done a mighty job in charge – should continue at the helm for the road to the one-day World Cup in India in 12 months’ time.
Two ducks against the Netherlands in June was enough for England captain Eoin Morgan to pull up stumps on his white ball career, and Finch, who will turn 36 just days after the World Cup final, has some big decisions to make, as do the Australian selectors, particularly if his run of outs and hesitant footwork against Zimbabwe continues against the Black Caps and their crafty seamers in Cairns.
Australia is in rich white ball health at the moment with the likes of Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Ben McDermott and Josh Inglis waiting on the edges pushing hard to claim a permanent spot in the 50-over team.
The jury is still out on whether wicketkeeper Alex Carey is an ODI No.4 after this series, and while Australia look to have the talent to challenge for a one-day World Cup in October 2023, there’s plenty of big decisions to be made to get the balance right.
Finch has been a great captain, but he’s going to have to start putting runs on the board to justify his place in the ODI format where openers have the prime real estate with fields up and time up their sleeve to build an innings.
The two-time World Cup winner has a proven record of stepping up when it matters, and Australian selector George Bailey made it emphatically clear the hierarchy is backing in Finch to deliver in the T20 World Cup.
Finch has had a decent T20 year and still has plenty of chances to play his way back into form in a run of World Cup warm-up games coming up against India, West Indies and England.
But Australia may still need to have a T20 World Cup back-up plan in place if Finch doesn’t start the tournament well, with Marcus Stoinis and Josh Inglis standing out as alternative opening options in the squad if things went pear shaped.
Mitchell Marsh has support as a future white ball skipper, while Test captain Pat Cummins and vice-captain Steve Smith are both in the squad.
Mitchell Starc took his 200th ODI wicket on Saturday, just the fifth Australian to achieve such a feat – but it was too little too late to pull off a great escape.
Australia dropped key catches and botched their reviews, although none of those blunders had a major effect on the result because wickets were taken soon after on each occasion.
Sadly Australia’s batsmen were completely outplayed by Zimbabwean leg-spinner Ryan Burl who took five wickets.
David Warner was honest in his assessment of Australia’s batting in the match.
“You have to put it down to some lazy dismissals and the odd good ball,” he said. “We have to assess those conditions as early as we can and try and post a better total.
“We lost it a little bit there, I know that me and Maxi put on 50 and obviously he played a shot he was disappointed with.
“At the end of the day, it’s just one of those ones you’ve got to forget.”
Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton was thrilled with the win but said it needed to be kept in perspective.
“I still think the gulf is huge, to be honest with you I think if we had lost the toss today we would have seen a result similar to the second game,” he said..
“We would struggle to beat your state sides on a good day, but we are growing and hopefully we grow quite quickly. Aith the amount of cricket that we are starting to play and the fact we are starting to get a few results like this, the wins against Bangladesh in two series, we played quite well against India and nearly won the third game against them, a win here. It’s really good in reinforcing what we are trying to do with the team in their tactics and the skills that they have.
“There’s nothing worse than working really hard and getting no reward for it, so it’s nice to get these little reward top ups to show the guys that what they’re doing is right.”
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