History and experience on Aaron Finch’s side

Aaron Finch might be in bad form, but he managed to pull out of a similar slump an dominate in the 2019 ODI World Cup.

Australia's captain Aaron Finch has played his way out of a form slump before

The case against Aaron Finch is simple enough: he isn’t making runs and he hasn’t for some time.

The case for him which selectors and teammates mount is not that difficult to understand either.

For a start, Finch has been here before and turned things around. His run of low scores leading into the 2019 ODI World Cup was not as protracted.

The Australian captain began 2019 with scores of 6, 6 and 14 against India at home and continued with returns of 0, 37, 93, 0, 27 in India.

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The numbers in the slump don’t look that bad or as extended as his current run, but there were concerns at the time.

The 93 was daylight breaking through and the following duck a momentary regression, the brilliant white-ball batsman continued on to fill his boots against Pakistan in the UAE with scores of 116, 157, 90, 39 and 53.

He was back in business by the time the World Cup came around, scoring 82 against Pakistan, 153 against Sri Lanka, 53 against Bangladesh and a 100 against England in successive innings.

It is the potential of these type of returns — and that return to form — that encourages selectors to stick with Finch through this tough period.

However, looking back on the lead-in to that 2019 World Cup, Finch admits he was anxious about his form, his place in the team and the effect those things were having on his leadership.

“(I had) huge anxiety based on the World Cup coming up, being captain of the side and not getting the output I wanted leading from the front,” Finch said. “When I think of Australian captains — Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor, Allan Border — everyone leads from the front, and I was getting really frustrated. I was preparing, doing everything I thought I could to succeed, it just wasn’t happening,” he told Gerard Whateley at the time on SEN.

“The support I was getting was incredible, but in the back of your mind you are thinking, ‘gee, the World Cup isn’t far away, as a captain I could be left out of the squad’; then you start putting unrealistic pressure on yourself to perform when you can’t control that. That takes care of itself if you do your job.

“You are trying talk to the boys about game plans and where you need to improve but I hadn’t been doing my job as well as I could have, so there were times when I was feeling I’m in no position to criticise anyone about their game when I’m not doing it well myself. I found that really tough and had to learn to put it to one side.”

While being captain exacerbates Finch’s anxiety during a slump the difficulty selectors would have replacing him could also be at play here. There are three games left in the New Zealand T20 series — game three is on Wednesday — and if Finch doesn’t do the job who does?

David Warner has proved himself adept at the job, his leadership and tactical knowledge are celebrated in the IPL, but he is on a lifetime ban from such roles in Australian cricket.

Does the board really want to test the waters with Steve Smith? They would have noted the pile-on to a perceived minor indiscretion in the summer and seen it as a taste of what would come should he do the job.

Glenn Maxwell does it for the Melbourne, but nobody is rushing in that direction.

Moises Henriques is not a walk-up start for selection but is an impressive leader.

And as for Pat Cummins, well, it might be all right for longer formats but it is hard to see a bowler being able to also do the heavy tactical lifting in a T20 World Cup.

Finch is looking better by the minute.

Back to that interview he did with Whateley.

“It’s a game of inches,” he said. “Hyderabad, the first ODI, my 100th, I’m thinking this is where the rut’s ending, I’m coming out going to be aggressive, and I get a good one from Jasprit Bumrah, out for a duck. I was going back through all my notes that I’m keeping of training sessions and mental preparation and thinking to myself why is it different to when I was in form? The reality was there wasn’t a huge difference, it was in my own mindset. I was starting to think a bit negatively.

“I was lucky enough to get 90-odd, played a pretty good innings, had great partnership with Usman (Khawaja) in Ranchi then started to feel like I’d turned it around. I walk out next game chasing 360 and out for a duck again, then you doubt yourself. To get a start in the next game was nice then to continue it on through UAE was pleasing.”

Australia will be hoping Finch inches his way back to confidence and form starting today.