Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch, who underwent knee surgery on Thursday, expects to be fit for the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. “Jumped in for a quick procedure yesterday... I am on pain killers at the moment, and now all roads lead to recovery,” Finch told Sportstar .
Finch missed the recent Bangladesh tour, where Australia slumped to its fifth successive series defeat in T20Is. Stand-in captain Matthew Wade’s side was skittled in just 13.4 overs in the fifth and final T20, making it Australia’s shortest innings in 144 years of international cricket.
No panic
However, Finch is not pressing the panic button even as debates rage around Australia’s long-standing middle-order issues in the shortest format.
“Let’s wait and see how we go at the World Cup, and after that, we will see what the perception [around the middle-order] looks like. We are out there giving it a crack every time we step on the field, no matter which team we have in the park. We are representing Australia. At the moment, I don’t think there is a problem.”
In the final T20I, Australia picked three frontline spinners in the hope that the slowness of the Dhaka surface and the turn would help its bowlers. With conditions at the T20 World Cup likely to help spinners, Finch didn’t rule out a spin-heavy bowling strategy.
“Depending on the conditions we face will depend on the makeup of the team. If the conditions are similar to Bangladesh I can’t see why three spinners can’t play in the same team.”
Non-committal
However, he remained non-committal on the makeup of the World Cup squad. “I actually don’t have any inputs in the squad, my job is to just get out there and captain the team.
“George Bailey [new chairman of selectors of the Australia men’s team and his colleagues] will be selecting the squad.”
Published - August 14, 2021 05:39 am IST
