Australia's limited-overs captain, Aaron Finch has conceded that his career in the longest format is all but over, saying that the emergence of young crop in Test cricket is making him difficult to put a fight for a place.
Finch made his Test debut in 2018 against Pakistan in Dubai, arriving as a replacement of David Warner, who at the time was serving a ban following the ball-tampering saga in Cape Town against South Africa. As things stand, he only has five Tests under his belt, having scored 278 runs at an average of 27.80. His last appearance in the format came in a Boxing Day contest against India at Melbourne in 2018.
"In terms of red-ball cricket, I don’t think it’s realistic to play Test cricket again,” Finch was quoted as saying cricket.com.au.
”Just based on two things: the amount of opportunity to play four-day cricket and force a claim, I think, is going to be really limited; and also the young batters coming through, there are some seriously good players in Australia, especially top-order batters.
"The talent depth is really, really strong at the moment so I don't think that's an opportunity to be honest," the 33-year-old added.
He, although, mentioned that he wants to have “one really good crack” at getting back into the Test squad before drawing curtains to his career.
The Australia captain is currently in England and is looking forward to guiding his side in a limited-overs series comprising of three ODIs and as many T20 games against the hosts. And thus, he is adamant on putting strong performances until the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, which he has marked as the last straw of his career.
Finch has played 25 ODIs in England and has carried an impressive average and strike rate of 42.26 and 96.71 respectively, with three tons and six fifties. He needs just 28 runs to become only the fourth Australian to scored 1000 runs in England after Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Michael Clarke.
"It's always a place I've loved batting, right from when I first came over as a club player up in York," Finch said. "I think having played over here for six county seasons in T20 and a bit of four-day cricket helps.
"You play at venues a lot more and you just get more familiar with the place … having big squares here as a batter is always nice because you hit the ball through the field and you get full value for your shots."
Australia's T20 and ODI squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / William West
