Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch has likely ended his first-class career after shockingly announcing that he may not feature in a red-ball game ever.
Finch, who will be in charge of the Aussie team for an away assignment against Pakistan, added much-needed runs to his bank in a recent fixture of the Marsh Cup against Western Australia. Despite his 67 off 100 deliveries, Victoria faced a convincing defeat and were knocked out of the tournament.
Finch admitted that his Test career is over and as Victoria already have a few talented players waiting on the sidelines, occupying an important spot in the red-ball side practically makes no sense.
"I don’t think I’ll play again. There’s no point, I’m not going to play Test cricket again so the younger guys in our squad, there’s some really talented players, so there’s no point in me taking up one of those spots when they can be getting really valuable game time," Finch said as quoted to cricket.com.au.
"I love playing red-ball cricket, but it’s just reality. Unless you’re pushing for a Test match, I don’t really see the point, to be honest," he added.
The 35-year-old has been involved in five Test matches for Australia, racking up 278 runs at an average of 27.8. His first-class career started in 2007, which saw him accumulating 4,915 runs in 88 matches.
Further, the Aussie updated on his preparations for the white-ball leg of the Pakistan tour, which commences on March 29 with a three-match ODI series. ODIs will be followed by a solitary T20I, scheduled on April 5.
"It’s always nice to go into a series getting some runs but that’s still a couple of weeks away so now it’s just down to a couple of weeks of training. I feel like I’m hitting it nicely; I’m just tinkering a little bit with my technique and a few really minor changes, so it’s just about trying to get them implemented as quick as I can," Finch concluded.