"I Think Travis Head Will Get Some Opportunities, We're Excited To See What He Can Do" - Australia Coach Andrew McDonald Reveals Aaron Finch Replacement In ODIs

Aaron Finch announced his retirement from One Day Internationals on September 10. Australian coach Andrew McDonald has revealed that Travis Head is most likely to benefit from the batsman’s departure.

The Australians will ramp up preparations for next year’s ODI World Cup in India, with a number of series to be played. The first challenge will be picking a replacement for Finch after Pat Cummins was confirmed as the ODI side’s new captain.

Travis Head Will Get Some Opportunities – Andrew McDonald

Head dominated at the top of the order in Warner’s absence during a three-match ODI series in Pakistan earlier this year. Speaking to the media, McDonald suggested Head will get opportunities.

“I think Travis Head will get some opportunities with the retirement of Aaron Finch,” McDonald said.

“We’re excited to see what he can do in one-day cricket. We saw how he went in Pakistan against a world-class attack, he was able to take them on and his one-day domestic record is second to none. He’s got big hundreds, and double hundreds.”

Following their early exit from the ICC Twenty20 World Cup, Australia will play three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) against England starting next Thursday. The series kicks off a run of 17 one-day internationals between now and the World Cup in India next year, with Australia looking to regain the title.

McDonald believes that with a longer gap between the T20 World Cup and the ODI series, Australia will be at full strength in the series ahead of the Test series, which begins on November 30 against the West Indies.

We Were Really Keen To Play With Full-strength Squad – Andrew McDonald

“I think any time you get to play, it’s with as full-strength squad as you can. We saw that with the NZ series up north earlier, we were really keen to see what it would look like with as close to full strength as possible,” he said.

“We’ve got a little bit of a gap now because we’ve obviously exited (the World Cup) early so that allows us to play players that potentially – if we had have gone deep into this tournament – we wouldn’t have. So I think you’ll see a very strong side named in the coming days.”

Australia will play England in a three-match ODI series, with the first match to be played in Adelaide on November 17.

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