Ricky Ponting tutorial helps Aaron Finch handle Ishant Sharma
Aaron Finch largely blocked out the debate that was raging over his credentials as a Test opener, except when Ricky Ponting offered some key advice about seeking revenge over an old foe.
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Aaron Finch says he largely blocked out the debate that was raging over his credentials as a Test opener, except when Ricky Ponting offered some key advice about seeking revenge over an old foe.
Ten years ago Ponting was sliced and diced by Ishant Sharma in a stunning performance in Perth when the Indian spearhead was just 20 years old. He wasn’t about to let Finch fall into the same trap.
Finch was under enormous pressure heading into the second Test on a green pitch after Sharma trapped him lbw for a duck in the first innings in Adelaide. Sharma would have had him the same way in the second had he not been called for a front-foot no-ball.
Limited overs star Finch denies he used the avalanche of calls for him to be moved down the order as motivation to prove a point in Perth.
But he made one anyway with a gutsy maiden half century on home soil and crucial century partnership with opening partner Marcus Harris that once again proved Finch isn’t one to be tied down by naysayers.
“No you never play to prove anyone wrong or prove a point or for any other ambition than just to get your side in as good a position as you can,” Finch said.
“Some days you have a good day, some days you have a shocking day. It’s a part of the game and it’s part of opening the batting in Test cricket. It’s good fun. There’s never a dull moment.
“I was coming into the game under a bit of pressure and questions about where I could bat or should bat or my technique. I hadn’t really heard much of that. It’s only if someone mentions it that I’ve heard about it, so I’ve just been pretty focused on how I’m preparing.
“When you look at that wicket at times you can be a little bit daunted by it, by the colour of the grass, but I thought we played reasonably well in that first session to get through unscathed.”
Ponting sought Finch out for an intensive one-on-one tutorial on match eve in Perth and the opener has revealed the message from the Test batting legend centred largely on handling Sharma.
Sharma made a name for himself with his spell against Ponting way back in 2008 and after a couple of lean tours of Australia, was poised for another memorable series down under if his stranglehold over Finch continued.
Ponting’s intervention offered some choice wisdom.
“It was actually really good because it was so simple. It was basically around covering my off-stump and just lining up slightly different,” said Finch.
“My alignment where I want to try and hit the ball with the ball swinging back in.
“Obviously Ishant troubled him a little bit at the start of Ishant’s career in Australia. He troubled Punter moving the ball back in.
“It was good to have someone to chat to who has had to work through that and just your alignment and things like that. It wasn’t anything that I went out in the game with as such, it was more moving my guard slightly further over.”
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