Former World Cup Winner Claims IPL Captaincy is Harder Than Captaining Australia

Aaron Finch is one of the most decorated players in Australia’s T20I history. Not just because he led Australia to their only T20 World Cup title in 2021, but also because of Finch’s stellar numbers in the Australian jersey. Across 103 T20Is, Finch smashed 3120 runs, including a 172 against Zimbabwe and had a career strike rate of 142.53. 

But in a shocking revelation with ESPNCricinfo, Finch revealed that captaining an IPL side is much harder than leading Australia. 

“IPL [captaincy] was probably the hardest, because you’re coming together for a short period of time. At Pune Warriors, I came in as a replacement player and then two or three games later, I was captain. I just didn’t have the time to get to know everybody in the squad, which is really difficult,” Finch said on The Cricket Monthly. 

“Captaining Australia, you’ve got some of the best players in the world all the time, so my job was pretty easy there. Everyone knows what they’re trying to do. I wasn’t as good in the IPL as I was playing for the Renegades or for Australia. At times, the pressure of trying too much and trying to force it a little bit too much was there,” Finch added. 

Finch holds the record of playing for the most IPL franchises, as the former Australian captain represented nine teams during his IPL career. The right-hander looked back at his IPL debut for Rajasthan Royals, and how it panned out for him.

“I made my IPL debut for Rajasthan Royals. I played one match under Warnie (Shane Warne) as a replacement player, the last game of the year. It’s funny how your career can take different turns. At the end of that year, I’d signed a three-year deal with Rajasthan. I was an uncapped player, and that was all above board at the time,” he said.

“We went to the Champions League, and I had already got my three-year deal with Rajasthan locked away. Everyone else was playing for an IPL deal, really, but it didn’t bother me how I went, and I performed well. And then, just before the auction, they decided that everybody was in the auction. Now teams couldn’t sign uncapped players (on longer contracts),” Finch shared.

The former Australian opener also opened up about the possible ‘return’ of Champions League T20, a league where the best of franchises compete against each other. 

“Absolutely, I'd love to see it [Champions League T20] back. That gave a lot of people a start in international cricket and the franchise circuit. Maybe the schedule these days is too packed for it to come back. To try and find a window to play a global tournament like that is maybe unrealistic, but I loved it,” he said.