Knives out for Australia’s Finch after New Zealand loss

SYDNEY: Critics led by former great Mark Waugh have questioned Aaron Finch’s ability to captain Australia at the Twenty20 World Cup ater another failure during their New Zealand tour.

World number two Australia slumped to a 2-0 deficit ater the second T20 against the Black Caps in Dunedin on Thursday, leaving them on the brink of a series defeat against a side ranked sixth in the world.

The Australians, comprehensively outplayed in the first match, looked rudderless until a Marcus Stoinis-led fightback let them four runs short of an unlikely victory.

Finch’s doubters questioned his leadership credentials and pointed to his ongoing struggles opening the bating, with scores of one and 12 during the series.

“His job is to score runs... no batsman is immune from being dropped when you’re not scoring runs, doesn’t mater if you’re captain or not,” Waugh, now a pundit, told Fox Cricket.

Finch, 34, also failed to fire in the recent Big Bash League, averaging just 13.8, and he failed to atract any bids in the Indian Premier League auction.

“Finch is running out of chances to book his ticket to this year’s T20 World Cup in India,” Sydney Morning Herald cricket writer Andrew Wu said.

The Australian newspaper’s Peter Lalor contrasted Finch’s 12 runs off 14 balls in Dunedin with Stoinis’ 78 from 37 and rookie batsman Josh Philippe’s 45 from 32.

“They’re both down the order to accommodate Finch; all they really did was show him up,” he wrote.

Lalor said Finch’s poor run “means he’s only being picked right now for being a great captain and fabulous bloke”.

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell did not address Finch’s role directly but did nominate potential replacements as captain, saying Pat Cummins, Alex Carey and Moises Henriques could all do the job.

“The first thing with Cummins -- and he’d be my first choice -- is he’s going to hold his place in the team all the time, and secondly, he’s an inspirational cricketer,” Chappell told Channel Nine.

“If you can’t be inspired by Pat Cummins no one is going to inspire you.”

Despite this, Finch received staunch backing from Stoinis, who said his teammates felt the same way, declaring: “We’ve got his back.”

“He’s arguably the best T20 bater in the world over a long period of time,” he said ater the Dunedin match. “His record’s so good and he’s our captain... in our heads we just trust him.”

Stoinis also voiced a strong endorsement of struggling skipper Finch, claiming the out-ofform opener is crucial to Australia’s hopes at the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in India later this year.

Stoinis also reaffirmed Finch maintains the unstinting support of his team and has shown in the past how readily he can snap out of batting slumps.

“There’s just full confidence that he’s going to perform for us and, personally, all I can see is a long-term picture because come the World Cup, we need him firing,” Stoinis said today when asked if pressure was building on Finch to hold his place in the starting XI.

The third T20 is in Wellington on Wednesday.