Aaron Finch tipped to take over Australia's T20 captaincy

In line for Australia’s captain?

What’s the story?
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has endorsed Aaron Finch to take over captaincy of the T20 side in the near future. Finch, who is the captain of the Melbourne Renegades side in the ongoing Big Bash League has earned praise from all quarters for both his captaincy and his batting form. 

"He's been captain in the past, he's in terrific form and you'd think he's going to be in the team. I'm not sure what other names the selectors are tossing around, but to me it seems like a pretty good fit.," Ponting was as quoted by bigbash.com.au. 

In case you didn’t know...
Steven Smith is the captain of the Australian team and the selectors are looking at a different option to ease the workload on their most prolific batsman across all formats. Also, he would be with the Australian Test squad in India, and this is why Finch could be given the reigns for the Australia’s T20I campaign against Sri Lanka. 

Finch has been in red-hot form in the Big Bash League and this could make the job of the selectors easy when they sit down to pick the squad for the series. Mark Waugh, who is one of the National selectors is also a commentator for the BBL. Thus, he has seen FInch from very close quarters and this could tilt the balance in the favour of the burly Victorian. 

The heart of the matter
According to the Australian schedule, the team is slated to play a T20 match against Sri Lanka on February 22. Also, the Test team would then be kicking off their Test campaign against India almost 16 hours later in India. This bizarre scheduling has come under a lot of criticism by both the players and the common public.
 
However, the selectors are now facing a real quandary as to selecting their best teams for both the formats. Since regular captain Steven Smith would not be available for the T20 series owing to his Test commitments, the National selectors are looking at a new captain. 

The ongoing BBL has thrown up a number of possible names, and Aaron Finch is seen as the number one candidate owing to his experience and prowess. 

The Renegades skipper had held the post between 2014 and 2016 for a six-match tenure. This came to an end just before last year's ICC World T20 event, when selectors appointed Test and ODI captain Steve Smith to take over all the formats. 

What next?
Aaron Finch could be a good choice for the near future as he would be in charge of a young team which would consist of a number of top performers from the Big Bash League and thus would be in better place to make his decisions. 

Also, he is striking the ball pretty well and the added responsibility could bolster his credentials further and give the selectors a sweet headache in the longer run. 

Sportskeeda’s Take
The main reason why the selectors decided to take away captaincy from Aaron Finch before the WorldT20 was his lack of runs. However, as Finch is now back among the runs, he could be a solid prospect to lead the side in home conditions.