Aaron Finch Replaces Tim Paine As Australia's ODI Captain

Aaron Finch has replaced Tim Paine as the captain of Australia’s One-Day International team.

In an attempt to allow Tim Paine to focus fully on the Test side, Australia has replaced him with Aaron Finch to lead the side in the 50-over format. Finch’s stint as captain will start with the home series against South Africa.

Paine was named as the Test and ODI skipper after the ball-tampering scandal led to the banning of Steven Smith and David Warner following the one-year sanction from Cricket Australia (CA). However, his stint as ODI skipper started on a disastrous note. England drubbed the reigning world champions 5-0 to register their first -ever whitewash over their Ashes rivals in a five-match series.

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What further hurt Paine’s reputation was his poor performance with the bat. The wicketkeeper-batsman scored only 36 runs at 7.2 in five innings.

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Keeping with their new rule, Australia also announced two vice-captain – Alex Carey and Josh Hazlewood.

With Paine no more in the ODI team, Carey will also take care of the wicketkeeping duties.  On the other hand, Hazlewood is returning after a long injury lay off. The pacer last played an ODI in January this year.

“We expect Aaron, Josh and Alex to lead the side through a big Australian summer, where we’ll meet South Africa and India.They’ll also be driving our standards and values as we prepare our defence of the World Cup, which is only seven months away,” National selector Trevor Hohns said.

“Alex Carey will pull on the gloves full-time to allow Tim Paine to focus purely on captaining the Test team, which includes preparing for next year’s Ashes. Alex provides us with another strong batting option, as he displayed in last year’s Big Bash, and he’s a wonderful young leader to have around the group and out in the field,” he added.

Chris Lynn has also returned to the ODI side following his impressive performances in the JLT Cup. He finished the competition as the highest run-scorer of the tournament. The likes of D’Arcy Short, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis have also made it to the squad after impressing in the domestic arena.

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“D’Arcy Short has retained his spot in the side alongside Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis. D’Arcy was also outstanding with the bat in the JLT Cup. Combined with his energy in the field and ability to come on and bowl leg-spin, he’s an extremely versatile member of the squad,” said Hohns.

Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar will take of the spin departed in absence of spearhead Nathan Lyon who has been rested.

“We have included two spin bowlers in the squad, Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa. And we’re looking forward to seeing who can grab the opportunity against South Africa.”

“We have made the decision to manage Mitch Marsh and Nathan Lyon carefully to ensure they are in the best condition possible to put their hand up for selection either later in the summer or for the World Cup next year,” Hohns said.

Australia ODI Squad:

Aaron Finch (c), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Alex Carey (vc&wk), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, D’Arcy Short, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa