FRAZZLED FINCH FRESHENED UP BY BREAK
CRICKET: Aaron Finch reckons it would’ve been an easy call to drop him from the Test team, saying he had no “bullets to fire back” when coach Justin Langer pulled the trigger.
After being installed as Australia’s ODI and T20 captain and parachuted into the Test team, Finch was mentally and physically fried after spending just 12 days at home in the past eight months.
The destructive opener was give last week off to freshen up and spent the time mowing lawns, enjoying a few beers, spending quality time with his wife and sleeping in his own bed.
“That was really refreshing – it’s something I haven’t done in a long time,” Finch said.
“Going from last season, getting married, going straight to the IPL, straight to the UK and staying there for a few months with ODIs and County cricket, and then straight to Dubai, there was a period where I was home for about 12 days in eight months.
“It makes it really difficult. Sometimes people forget about that. Mentally when you’re training and travelling and playing so much it can wear you down.”
Langer had tried to warn Finch how arduous his road ahead would be as a Test opener.
“I spoke to JL before the Dubai series and he said, ‘You’ll be surprised how mentally drained you are after the two Tests there,’” Finch said.
“You think about playing four-day cricket and think, ‘Yeah, I’ll be a little bit tired’, and after the two Test matches I was like, ‘Jesus, I need to take a step back and think about this.’
“It was a really hard time.” Victoria coach Andrew McDonald bats Finch in the middle order to maximise his destructive power against the older ball, but the Colac batsman had no gripes about being dumped from Australia after five matches as an opener.
“I haven’t got any runs, that’s the reality – two 50s in five Tests,” he said.
“I said this when I got dropped from the one-day team after a really lean run – at times you’d like to have some bullets to fire back, but there’s just none when you’ve made two 50s and averaged 16 for the series.
“I think it would’ve been a pretty easy call to be fair.”
While Finch’s omission from the fourth Test side was disappointing, he was thankful for the opportunity to return home.
“To (spend) a few days and sleep in my own bed and spend a bit of one-onone time with my wife that wasn’t in a hotel room somewhere else in the world was really nice and a little refresh that I needed,” he said.
Finch top-scored for the Melbourne Renegades in their Big Bash League win over the Hobart Hurricanes on Monday night, scoring 42 of 39 balls.
He is unsure whether the selectors will pick him for the squad to play Sri Lanka, which will be announced today.
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