Aaron Finch Steps Away From The Scene With His Head Held High!

Perhaps for time immemorial, a debate will rage on as to what constitutes the phrase ‘great’ in the sport.

There will be some- and they can’t really be doubted- who’ll go for batsmen who scored dozens of runs. Then there’ll be those who’ll recollect the names behind the most number of match-winning innings.

But a question must be asked.

What will you consider of those who, despite having some time on their hands and with distinct skill to boot, stepped aside deliberately only so their team could forge plans for the others.

Those who sacrificed their spot in order to give a chance to youngsters.

In that regard, Aaron Finch shall always be remembered as a great whose success was composed not only of some ridiculously fine knocks in white-ball cricket, but the larger canvass called Australian cricket.

“Realising that I won’t be playing on until the next T20 World Cup in 2024, now is the right moment step down and give the team time to plan and build towards that event,” declared the easygoing Victorian as he made plans for his cricketing future be known to a world that’s quick to bandage just about anyone as a great.

In that regard, Aaron Finch stepped away in the very manner he played Cricket.

Always on his own terms, always seemingly in control!

Though, it could be argued that perhaps somewhere within, inside that tough cookie persona of this gum-chewing jovial batter lay a realisation that his ODI cricket wasn’t really going anywhere.

Random take? Uninformed punt? Hardly.

Last year, Aaron Finch got 14 opportunities in ODI’s, but he failed to collect a single century, scoring only 174 runs.

In each year where he played white-ball cricket, starting from 2013 until 2020, Aaron Finch had hit a century. As a matter of factly, in just his second year of being a one-day player, he struck four hundreds in the 50-over game, beginning 2014 with a celebrated ton against the English at the MCG.

That same year, he’d strike South Africa with raw power, hitting hundreds at Harare and the Manuka Oval.

Then, four cricketing summers later, Aaron Finch would repeat his enviable 2014 feat

After beginning 2019 with a string of low scores that ran from Sydney until Vidarbha, Finch struck a 93 off 99 at Ranchi in India.

But that was before hitting a gutsy 116 at Sharjah versus a Pakistan packed with Yasir Shah and Mohammad Amir, an effort which came on March 22, 2019.

A day later, he wasn’t done yet as he came back even stronger, hitting the white ball even further courtesy an unbeaten 153 that came off just 143 deliveries.

Though Finch was only just getting started; later that year, he’d score another 153 against Sri Lanka; this one coming at an even brisker pace, off just 132 deliveries, before smashing England for an exact score of 100.

Though, the central highlight of Aaron Finch’s career was his strike rate

Not once in his ODI career, that began in 2013 up until 2019 did Finch score at a scoring late lesser than 84; he’d collected 514 runs in his maiden 50-over calendar year at an astonishing hitting rate of 92.

His strike rate slipped but only just- dropping to 81- in 2020.

In the middle of extreme brute hitting, there were tectonic highs in the shorter form. Playing the opening T20I at the Rose Bowl in 2013, the daring Aussie opener transformed the equation of the contest quite spectacularly and single-handedly.

The England versus Australia game became Aaron Finch vs England

In pounding 14 sixes and notching up a century off just 47 deliveries, Aaron Finch reduced a Root, Broad, Dernbach-powered England to a team buried amid irremovable rubble.

In one Joe Root over, he quite simply collected 27 runs, hitting three sixes consecutively. He was brutal. He was depressing and damaging from an English perspective.

When on song, Finch, the gum-chewing, boyishly smiling enigma was unstoppable

Where else would you find a batsman whose efforts would put the likes of Watson, Hussey, Maxwell and Bailey to a sort of rest, taking upon himself the responsibility of being the attacker, the enforcer and without much doubt, the destroyer?

One of Aaron Finch’s greatest ODI innings, but sadly one hardly discussed when speaking about the Aussie genius in white-ball cricket came in the 2015 World Cup and that too, in the tournament opener for the hosts.

Taking head on an all-encompassing England attack starring Finn, Broad and Woakes, Aaron Finch quickly rose to the occasion hitting 135 vital runs off just 128 deliveries as he pumped Australia to a position of unchallenged ascendency in a big win.

He was unafraid of going big, eager to dance down the track to the spinners and often did the same to seamers.

And yet, here was Aaron Finch, a batsman exemplary when on song and a cricketer who didn’t rely on stooping to level of conduct unbecoming of a sportsman.

You didn’t sledge Finch; you regarded him and were wary of his powers.

Likewise, Finch didn’t slip in the verbals. There was just never a need of expletives in his case. He was happy in destroying the bowlers and there was enough damage done with the bat itself.

That’s actually the thing that didn’t change until the end.

The love for batting and giving everything to his Australian team is what it ultimately came to and really mattered.

The rest, as the Aussies would concur, was bullshit.

And here was a man who wasn’t interested a bit in B.S.

Go well Finchy!

Note- feature image prepared by Prashant Kumar Banjare!