Follow UsFormer Australian cricketer and current assistant coach of the Delhi Capitals franchise, Shane Watson is of the opinion that it’ll be difficult for Australia to pick Aaron Finch for the T20 World Cup should his form not improve in due time.
Finch led Australia to their maiden T20 World Cup title in the UAE last year, but the 35-year-old has been in torrid form in the shortest format all year. The right-hander, in all T20s in 2022, has averaged under 30 while barely striking at 120, and he’s just ended an underwhelming IPL 2022 campaign for the Knight Riders, where he averaged 17.20 across 5 matches, passing the 15-run mark just once.
Finch is still the skipper of Australia’s white-ball sides, but Watson believes the veteran can’t be picked for the T20 World Cup later this year should he continue to struggle.
"Unfortunately, right now, the way he's batting and what I've seen during this IPL, he's batting nowhere near his best," Watson told the Grade Cricketer.
"Whatever is going on, the things he's working on with his technique and mindset, it's changed a lot from when he's been at his best.
"I believe if he's not scoring runs in the lead up to the T20 World Cup, and it's along similar lines to what we saw here for KKR, you can't pick him. At the moment he's so far out of touch, no matter how good your captaincy skills are, if he continues to bat the way he is, it would be a big liability, especially as an opener.”
Watson believes that Finch, currently, is nowhere near his best, and should not be guaranteed a spot in the first XI just because he’s captain. According to the 40-year-old, a captain must be good enough in the first place to make the team’s best XI.
"It's such an important role to get the team off to a flying start. He's been so incredibly good - I've batted with him when he got 150 against England at the Rose Bowl, he is a world-class batsman, an incredible short-form batsman - but just to see where his game is now it's a fair way away from that. I believe it should be the team's picked and then the captain gets picked from there, especially if you are a long way out of touch,” Watson said.
Along the lines of captaincy, Watson also termed the permanent leadership ban put by Australia on David Warner as ‘ridiculous’. In the aftermath of the sandpaper gate, Cricket Australia banned Warner permanently from leading the national team, but Watson believes Warner has done his time and hence, like Steve Smith, must be allowed to captain the national team ‘if he's the right person at the right time’.
"This is my opinion, and I know it's a big opinion within Australian cricket in certain parts, he's served his time," Watson said.
"He was involved in a big mistake but he's been severely punished in so many ways. The way they hung him out to dry and everything really came back on him, the financial impact that it had on him, and publicly, he's been absolutely smashed across the board.
"He's done his time. Everyone makes mistakes. Some are more public than others, some are worse than others, but you are allowed to forgive. I think it's absurd that he's not allowed to captain a team, whether it's a Big Bash team or an Australian team, if he's the right person at the right time. Think it's absolutely ridiculous."