T20 World Cup: Aaron Finch sets sights on winning only trophy to elude Australia
Skipper Aaron Finch is still haunted by Australia’s crushing World Cup exit, but he’s determined to channel his regrets into conquering the final frontier for Australian cricket.
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Aaron Finch is still haunted by Australia’s crushing World Cup exit, and knows there is only one cure.
World Cup disappointments can only be avenged in World Cups, and the white-ball captain is channelling his regrets into conquering the final frontier for Australian cricket.
In 12 months, Australia will host the Twenty20 World Cup, the one piece of silverware which still eludes the Jolimont trophy cabinet. Preparations officially kick into gear on Sunday with a series at home against past winners Sri Lanka.
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Australia might have fallen short in its 50-over World Cup bid in England earlier this year, but Finch was widely praised as the great captaincy revelation of international cricket.
Thrust into the hot seat in the wake of the Cape Town scandal, Finch re-established Australia’s limited-overs identity after two years of disastrous results.
Heading into the tournament, Finch was facing criticism over his own form and question marks over whether he had the tactical nous to succeed as an international captain. When CA performed a leadership survey in the wake of Steve Smith and David Warner’s suspensions, Finch was marked harshly by his peers and recognised he needed to raise his on-field demeanour.
Rising above that pressure to make the one-day captaincy his own has given Finch belief in his capabilities leading into the new World Cup campaign, but it hasn’t helped him sleep any easier. This is the curse of the captain.
“It gives you self-confidence, but at the same time you probably critique yourself harder than anyone else does,” he said.
“You look back on it and think, ‘what could I have done differently to change a few results.
“Obviously the semi-final (loss to England), I think, ‘geez, should I have bowled first? Did they bowl well, or did we bat poorly? Was it a bowl first wicket? Team balance (was it right)? You toss up everything and you keep going over it in your head.
“But at the end of the day you can’t do anything about it. Just learn for next time.”
Fortunately for Australia, ‘next time’ is coming up fast.
Australia is making the Twenty20 World Cup its primary focus for the next 12 months, and Finch — a victorious member of the 2015 50-over World Cup triumph on home soil — is hungry.
“It’s the one that still eludes our trophy cabinet so it would be nice to do it,” he said.
“With the pressure of playing at home comes the expectation, but also comes a lot of experience with guys knowing the conditions.
“If I think back to the two (T20) World Cups that I’ve played in India and Bangladesh, they’re as foreign conditions as we can play in.
“Even though we’ve played in them a lot more in the last 10 years of IPL, it’s still totally different to us to what we grow up with.
“We are hoping that home conditions can be as favourable as they were in 2015.”
GILLY’S TOP 5 WORLD CUP THREATS
Adam Gilchrist nominates his stars to watch
D’ARCY SHORT
A damaging player who has produced the goods particularly in Australian conditions. Everyone will have theories around every player about where their strengths and weaknesses are but, in these conditions, I think Short could very well have an impact at World Cup level. Obviously David Warner is a standout in this format and will be of paramount importance at the top of the order.
ASH TURNER
For mine, a standout. Turner has a proven record in Big Bash and we saw nice glimpses in India in that one-day team before the World Cup. He’s a player who could almost fulfil a Jos Buttler middle-order role for Australia. Turner has a good cricket brain. With his shoulder coming good, he can get back to providing a few handy overs of spin.
PAT CUMMINS
The bowling group as a whole hasn’t focused too much on white-ball cricket recently, except for the World Cup. But this summer, and the next 12 months, the bowling attack is going to have a really good opportunity to get a lot more game time with the white ball. Cummins will prove himself to be versatile in all three formats to have an impact.
ALEX CAREY
I seem to be singing his praises all the time but he’s an exceptional talent. His decision to quit AFL and turn his focus solely to cricket as a 20-year-old is a gutsy one. He is still maturing to an extent. But he is a really exciting prospect. His leadership credentials may well come into the fray as well at some point.
CHRIS LYNN
Left out of the Australian squad to face Sri Lanka, you’d still have to think Lynn could have an impact in Australia. If he performs in the Big Bash and IPL, he could come back into consideration. Like Short, Lynn is proven in Australia. The push to get him included in the 50-over World Cup obviously didn’t go as planned for anyone, but he is clearly a specialist at this format and has been focusing all his efforts on it.
Originally published as T20 World Cup: Aaron Finch sets sights on winning only trophy to elude Australia