Aaron Finch had declared that not even the prospect of ending his international career in the team dugout would dissuade him from dropping out of the team for their critical Twenty20 World Cup encounter with Afghanistan if his hamstring wasn’t right.
Within half an hour of saying so, Finch was living that unfortunate reality.
On the eve of a game the tournament hosts must win by a wide margin while hoping the result of England’s battle with Sri Lanka falls favourably on Saturday night, all signs pointed to the likelihood of Finch handing the captaincy reins to Matthew Wade.
While Finch completed a series of shuttle runs at the team’s preparatory session on Thursday afternoon, he did not look entirely happy and did go on to bat, spending much of the session in long discussions with Wade, the head coach Andrew McDonald and his likely replacement, Cameron Green.
Aaron Finch celebrates 50 against Ireland in what may have been his last international innings.Credit:Getty
Before training, Finch was adamant that thoughts of an anti-climactic conclusion to his decade in Australian colours – he is widely expected to have finished with the national team by the time of their next T20 assignment in August next year – would not cloud his thinking.
Green hit another litany of long balls on Thursday, reprising his star turn as an opener on the recent tour of India. Tim David, another doubt with a hamstring strain, batted comfortably enough against the offerings of the assistant coach Michael Di Venuto.
“If I feel like it one per cent would be compromising the side’s performance I won’t play,” Finch said. “If I don’t feel confident in my hamstring then I won’t play. That might be in the first effort I do today or the last one. If I feel any pain or anything like that, I won’t play.
“I honestly haven’t thought about anything past tomorrow. With so many numbers and scenarios flying around, if you’re not paying full attention to that, it’s incredibly difficult to focus on your main job.”
Had New Zealand beaten England in Brisbane on Tuesday, Finch agreed he would have been likely to sit out of the Afghanistan game in expectation of a semi-final at the SCG next week. But as it is, the Australians have been left needing to win by as much as possible due to the heavy nature of their opening loss to New Zealand.
“The reality is we’ve put ourselves in this position, so you can’t really wait for second chances or rely on other teams,” Finch said. “If that means I don’t play, I’m perfectly comfortable with that if I think it’s going to compromise the team in any way.
“Our first game has put us in this situation. We knew for the rest of the tournament that it was going to come down to run rate should things go well, but also there’s two other games in the pool to be played as well. So first and foremost we’ve got to try to get the two points.”
One thing Finch remained steadfast about on Thursday was that he would not endorsing a completely unbridled attack with the bat in the opening overs of a tournament where pitches and weather conditions have afforded bowlers plenty to work with.
“For us to win we need to restrict Afghanistan or get off to a really solid start, and the foundation is the most important thing in doing that,” he said. “If you bat first, walk out and think ‘we need to get 250’ and go all guns blazing, you could leave yourself really vulnerable there.
“So regardless of whether we bat or bowl first, the first three or four overs are key to being successful. That then allows guys off the back of that to play their natural game and be over aggressive at various times with bat and ball.“
Finch also explained that Mitchell Starc’s role bowling through the middle of the innings, after years of taking the new ball, was geared at ensuring Australia kept taking wickets consistently across the innings, the better to avoid any bowlers – Starc or otherwise – having to hurl the ball down at two set batters in the closing overs.
“If you don’t get wickets through that middle phase of the game, you’re incredibly vulnerable at the back end, regardless of who’s bowling,” Finch said. “You could have the best two bowlers ever and if you have two set batters it’s going to be incredibly difficult to contain them.
“That’s been a little change in Mitch’s role, to be pushing harder through the middle overs and almost towards the back end of the powerplay, so we can try to get a wicket there and expose the middle order.”
