Why is Aaron Finch an underrated T20I captain?
Aaron Finch has done for Australia what Ricky Ponting could not do. He has done for them what Michael Clarke and George Bailey could not do. In fact, he has done for them what Steve Smith, the Bradman regen, could not do. Finch has won Australia an ICC T20 World Cup title when none of the others could. Some of them, even when they had two goes at it.
In this era of analytics and matchups augmented by simulations of algorithms a million times to determine the best course of action to win games, what role has Aaron Finch played in Australia's run? Is he a specialist captain or a special case of ingenuity from an often overlooked player?
Aaron Finch - a deserving T20I captain
From his debut in 2011, it took Finch only three years time to be handed the captaincy of the side in the T20I format.
Yet, a day before the announcement of Australia's squad for the 2016 ICC T20 World Cup, he was axed as captain and replaced by Steven Smith. Finch had been nursing a hamstring injury, and Australia had just been thrashed in a T20I series, so they decided to try something anew.
In the 2016 World Cup, Finch missed the first two games against New Zealand and Bangladesh. Shane Watson opened the innings for Australia along with Usman Khawaja. In the next two games, Finch returned as opener and made 58 runs. But it was not enough, as Australia failed to make the semis.
However, in October 2018, Australia changed their minds, and reinstated Finch as their T20I captain. Only three months earlier, he had scored a massive 172 against Zimbabwe in a Tri-series that also featured Pakistan.
Shane Warne, at that time, said that Finch should, in fact, take over the captaincy of the national team in all formats:
"To me, he (Finch) should be captain. I'd like to see him captain all forms for the game."
While that has not happened, three years later, Finch is one of the top T20I captains in the game. And the backers who stuck by Finch back then will be happy with what they got out of him.
Win% of T20I captains with 50 or more matches:-
[among major teams]
64.6% Virat Kohli
61.8% Eoin Morgan
59.3% MS Dhoni
51.9% Aaron Finch
51.9% Kane Williamson
A remarkable stint as T20I captain come to an end for #ViratKohli
Only MS Dhoni and Eoin Morgan have led their teams in T20Is more times than Finch. But no one has scored more runs as a captain in T20 internationals than Finch, who is also Australia's leading run-scorer in T20Is.
Why is Aaron Finch so underrated?
Despite his success in the format, the Australian T20I captain does not have the same appeal and glamour to his name as some of his other illustrious teammates. He simply does not get the same recognition given to other members of the squad, even when he outperforms them consistently.
He is Australia's leading run-scorer in T20Is, which means he has outperformed everyone in the team off the bat. Yet Finch has struggled for recognition unlike other T20I captains like Eoin Morgan, Babar Azam or Kane Williamson.
Sadly no one will hype Aaron Finch, the captain if Australia wins the tournament 😂😂.
If it happened under Morgan, Babar or Kane whole world will credit them.
Finch won't get hype if he wins. Bookmark it
Could it be his lack of IPL performances? But it isn't like Finch has not played any IPL games. He is a veteran of over 80 IPL games, scoring 2000 runs. He recently played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2020.
Nevertheless, Aaron Finch has slipped under the radar. Maybe it is just the presence of the likes of David Warner, Steven Smith and Glenn Maxwell around him that makes people not notice Finch as much. He is like VVS Laxman in the era of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid.
While Finch the captain has been having a wonderful time, Finch the batter has been going through something of a lean patch.
His yearly average of 28 in T20Is is one of the lowest of his career. In a format where people's stat reports include 30+ scores as a metric for analysing how good they are, Finch has had a decade full of average above 30.
Finch has amassed 459 runs in 17 games this year. But barring one match where he scored 12 runs against New Zealand, the rest of his scores are either single digit or above 30.
Here are his scores at the T20 World Cup 2021:
0 against South Africa.
37 against Sri Lanka.
44 against England.
40 against Bangladesh.
9 against West Indies.
0 against Pakistan.
5 against New Zealand..
An average of just 19.79 in an ICC tournament would be enough to sack any other captain in the world. But Aaron Finch also won six of seven tosses, which played a huge role in Australia's triumph. The only toss he lost? The game against England, which they lost.
Aaron Finch admits that winning 6 out of 7 tosses at the #T20WorldCup played a big part in Australia's triumph 🏆
Australia would not mind their captain losing his touch as a batter as long as the team produces results like they did at the T20 World Cup 2021. Moreover, Finch the batter, has shown that he is more than capable of returning into form.