Aaron Finch Confident of Good Show in One-Off T20I Against England

Australia’s T20I skipper, Aaron Finch, believes his team will take confidence from their recent T20 success against England when the two teams take on each other in the one-off game at Edgbaston on Wednesday.

Aaron Finch hopeful of an improved show from the Aussies

The reigning ODI world champions are entering the contest on the back of a demoralising 5-0 whitewash at the hands of England.

The series was thoroughly dominated by England during which they scored they scored over 300 thrice including a world record 481 for six in the third ODI. England will be out to try and extend their ODI dominance to the 20-over format.

However, Finch is confident the team would move on from the ODI drubbing and do well in the one-off game.

Australia had won their past six T20 internationals stretching back to last October. The run includes two wins against England in the tri-series featuring New Zealand in February. They had gone on to win the triangular series as well.

Australia have most of the same squad available at Edgbaston. But Finch is captain in the absence of David Warner, who led them to success in February. A month later, Warner got banned for the ball-tampering scandal.

“We’ve played really good T20 cricket over the last little while,” Finch said. “That was with Davey as skipper in the T20 tri-series. But we’ve got a pretty similar group and the guys are playing some really good cricket in that format. It’s probably a format the guys have played a lot more of in the last 12 months.

“It’s just about trying to get some continuity over the next six games. And really start to develop a core squad that we can take forward almost with one eye on the 2020 World Cup at home,” he added.

Finch is not new to captaincy, having led his country in both T20I and ODI in the past. There are speculations he may take the ODI reins should Alex Carey, his vice-captain for this game, be favoured as wicketkeeper over Tim Paine.

Appointed as ODI skipper, Paine flopped not only with his captaincy but also with the bat. Paine recently admitted his place would be up for discussion.

When asked about it, Finch said he was yet to think over it. At the same time, he hinted he would grab the offer with both hands.

“Someone asked me about this the other day and I haven’t spoken to Tim about anything like that. I haven’t thought about it to be honest,” Finch said. “If the opportunity came up at some point, having done it a couple of games in New Zealand going back quite a while, if the opportunity is there anyone would love to captain their country but Tim’s the man for the job.”

Following the game against England, Australia will travel to Zimbabwe for a T20I tri-series. The other two teams in the series are the hosts and Pakistan.