Tim Paine to Lead Australia in England ODIs, Aaron Finch to Lead in T20Is
Tim Paine and Aaron Finch will lead Australia in the limited-overs formats, Cricket Australia (CA) announced on Tuesday (May 8). Paine, who is also the Test skipper, will lead the team in the One-Day Internationals while Finch will do the same in Twenty20 Internationals.
Paine will start his stint with the next month’s tour of the United Kingdom (UK).
On the other hand, Finch will lead the side in the One-off match against England and a subsequent tour of Zimbabwe, which consists of a tri-series also involving Pakistan. Finch had been tipped by many to replace Steven Smith as the ODI skipper.
Finch had the best credentials from the current lot to lead the reigning world champions. He had twice filled in as ODI as well as T20I skipper between 2014 and 2016.
Smith was appointed Australia’s full-time T20 skipper in 2014, before being replaced by Smith ahead of the 2016 World T20.
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In the Big Bash League (BBL), he had also led Melbourne Renegades since the second edition of the Twenty20, in addition to leading Victoria in both first-class and One-day cricket.
However, CA have decided to go with Paine in a bid for stability as they look to recover from the turbulent ball-tampering scandal which has shocked the cricketing world.
At the same time, CA chief selector Trevor Hohns confirmed Paine’s appointment was not permanent.
“Tim is a strong leader and will captain the side for this series, supported by Aaron,” Hohns said in a statement on Tuesday.
“A decision on a permanent one-day captain will be made in due course,” Cricket Australia quotes Hohns.
Moreover, Australia also named a new-look 15-man One-day International squad for the five-match series against England and also a 14-man T20 squad.
In addition to missing the suspended duo of Steven Smith and David Warner, they will also miss pacers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins along with allrounder Mitchell Marsh.
Nathan Lyon has been recalled to the ODI squad. The Test spin spearhead is set to play his first limited-overs match for Australia in two years.
On the other hand, spinning allrounder Ashton Agar is included in both sides while Mitchell Swepson was surprisingly named in the T20 team. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa is left out from the squads.
“Nathan is our number one off-spinner and has excelled with the red ball, however, he is not new to white ball cricket and deserves his chance to push for World Cup selection,” Hohns maintained.
“England potentially have a number of left-handers in their side and we look forward to seeing what he can produce with the white-ball in English conditions,” he asserted.
“Adam hasn’t performed to the level we would have liked in recent times and we see this as a good opportunity for other spinning options to press their case ahead of the cricket World Cup,” he added.
Shaun Marsh is also included in the ODI squad. Well, the likes of Usman Khawaja and Chris Lynn have missed out on both squads.
Australia’s ODI squad:
Tim Paine (c). Aaron Finch (VC). Ashton Agar. Alex Carey. Josh Hazelwood. Travis Head. Nathan Lyon. Glenn Maxwell. Shaun Marsh. Jhye Richardson. Kane Richardson. D’Arcy Short. Billy Stanlake. Marcus Stoinis. Andrew Tye.
Australia’s T20 squad:
Aaron Finch (c). Alex Carey (VC). Ashton Agar. Travis Head. Nic Maddinson. Glenn Maxwell. Jhye Richardson. D’Arcy Short. Billy Stanlake. Marcus Stoinis. Mitchell Swepson. Andrew Tye. Jack Wildermuth.
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