Former Australia skipper and current National selector, George Bailey, has insisted that under-fire skipper Aaron Finch will lead the team at the upcoming ICC T20I World Cup, calling mounting criticism of his leadership and form “white noise”.
Finch’s scores of 1 and 12 in their first two T20Is against New Zealand, coupled with his failure to fire in the recent Big Bash League, has sparked debate over whether he is the right man for the job. But, Bailey has backed Aaron Finch to lead the team during the tournament in India.
“He’s got a terrific average, he’s the captain of this side and he’ll be the captain of this side at the World Cup. It’s just complete white noise for me,” Melbourne Herald Sun quoted George Bailey as saying.
Several former cricketers, including Mark Waugh has raised doubts over his poor form.
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“His job is to score runs… no batsman is immune from being dropped when you’re not scoring runs, doesn’t matter if you’re captain or not,” Waugh had said.
Bailey attributed Finch’s poor form at the Big Bash, where he averaged just 13.8, to five months spent playing cricket in biosecurity bubbles. He added that Finch was hitting well in the nets in New Zealand and pointed to his outstanding record in the shortest format of the game.
“He’d be in the top five or 10 leading run-scorers, and if he doesn’t have the highest strike-rate amongst them he’d be absolutely close. And he’s done it very, very consistently for Australia over a long period of time, and will continue to do so into the future,” he stated.
The third T20I will be played on Wednesday, March 3, in Wellington, which will also host the fourth game after Auckland went on a Stage 3 lockdown.