Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch would have relished the prospects of playing in the upcoming edition of the IPL given his lacklustre form in the previous edition, but he is also pragmatic about the lack of opportunity and not surprised at franchises not showing any interest in his service.
Notably, Finch had put his base price at Rs 3 crore INR but went unsold in the auction that took place on February 18 in Chennai. However, he is preferring to take the positives out of it as it offers him a window to stay at home after an extended period of time away from playing for Australia and in the IPL last year.
"It would've been nice to be playing again, it's an amazing competition to be a part of, but it wasn't unexpected that I didn't get picked up to be honest. I'd prefer to be playing cricket, but a little bit of time at home might not be the worst thing, having quite a full schedule since August when we left for the UK and a few times in quarantine and a lot of times in hubs and bubbles, I think just getting home and recharging the batteries might be nice. I know my wife's definitely looking forward to it,” Finch said.
Finch struggled at the top of the order for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last IPL where he could muster only 268 runs from 12 innings with an abysmal average-strike rate combination of 22.33 and 112.20. He finished the tournament with a solitary fifty and became a liability for the Virat Kohli-led side before he was axed from the playing XI.
He would have hoped to resurrect his form and turn around his numbers in the Big Bash League that followed the limited-overs leg of the series against India, but his numbers sank further. He could not hit even a fifty in the 13 games in the 10th edition of the league and finished with mere 179 runs with a horrible average of 13.77 runs per innings.
Now, Finch has stepped up the process to eradicate the obvious flaws such as playing the front foot in his batting in discussion with Andrew McDonald, Australia’s assistant coach. Finch said that he felt his foot movement was making him stuck in the crease and hence the efforts and precise training to make his foot mobile will help him get back among runs once he starts to play again for Australia in the upcoming tour of New Zealand.
"I've been working on a few little technical things, trying to get a little bit less weight on my front foot. At times I can be a little bit flat-footed and my feet get planted and then I struggle to move again. I have my initial movement and then I get a little bit stuck. I've talked a lot and worked a fair bit with Andrew McDonald, who I go back to every time things don't seem quite right and he seems to sort it out pretty quick, so it's been nice to have a good chunk of training and focusing on a few little technical changes."
Australia are touring New Zealand for a five-match T20 series starting tomorrow, February 22 where the selectors have taken a punt on younger players who have shone brightly in the recently-concluded Big Bash League. The T20 squad has been picked in a clear separation from the Test squad in a clear sign of divergence as Australia are looking to build up a strong squad to win the ICC World T20 due to be held later this year in India.