Aaron Finch

thumb|AARON FINCH Aaron James Finch (born 17 November 1986) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer who previously captained the Australia national cricket team in both One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket. An opening batter and occasional left arm orthodox spinner, he made his international debut in 2011. He also played for Victoria in domestic cricket and the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League. Quotes I was really lucky to play with some players who had a lot of experience around the world, particularly in county cricket, [like] Dave Hussey, Cameron White and Brad Hodge. They were almost revolutionary in the way that they went about it, so it was a good time to come into T20 cricket. It was almost a bit of a hit-and-giggle still. Until the IPL came in, it probably wasn't taken as seriously as what everyone thought it should be. I mean, there were celebrities playing in domestic Big Bash games, and the philosophies on the game were very different. It's just fascinating to see where the game's gone [since]. But it was just the reality of the times. People were still working out how to go about playing T20 cricket at the start. We had a coach who had a lot of success as a T20 coach - Greg Shipperd - with Victoria, and his philosophy was: if you can get 40 off the first six, none down, you've done your job. It would go to 45, and as the game started to evolve, it was like: if we can get to 60… but don't take any risk. Be none or one down, no more than that at the end of the powerplay. You still have to have a fundamental technique to fall back on. You see guys in T20 now who get really hot for a period and then really cold for a long period. It's just the fact that they don't have a fundamental technique to fall back on, and generally they're younger guys who are still trying to work out their game. Being a little older when I was exposed to international cricket and IPL, you've played more longer-form cricket in that period of time. There's been times during this IPL [2025] where everyone's been critical about teams not having a different gear to go to, so having that base is definitely beneficial. It certainly was for me. It just gives you another avenue to be successful more often. It's generally guys at the top of the order, where the ball does move every now and then. It doesn't swing for long, but when it does, it can be extreme in the first one or two overs of a T20 innings, and that's when you're most vulnerable as a player. You still have to have a platform to be able to launch your innings from. And if you just don't get that balance quite right first up, it doesn't take too many games for you to start doubting yourself - and then, all of a sudden, it's a flow-on effect. If you've got somebody throwing numbers out at you the whole time, your creative flair as a captain can be really diminished I guess that's the case with guys who are playing so much T20 cricket now - not having the opportunity to go back and work on their game with zero pressure. It's always guys trying to tinker with their game between matches or tournaments, or series for their country, where you might get two weeks - and that's not a huge amount of time to be able to change something in your technique to make you better. It's finding that balance of how to manage your career in such a chaotic world with zero rest for players. . I always captained junior and representative sides coming through, and that was a big part of my development, being exposed to the tactical side of it - and not just on the field, but off-the-field management. When you come into a new set-up, being a youngster, no one's asking for your opinion, so you're just sitting back and watching everything unfold and forming your own ways to go about things when you do get an opportunity. I always loved the strategy side of it, and as I continued and ended up captaining Australia, I loved the preparation. When you're playing against the best in the world, 1% is sometimes all you can find, and that's so important. Spending time with the analyst and going through different scenarios of what might happen was something that fascinated me. When you first come in, you want to stamp your captaincy style on the team. I was emotional - far too emotional - when I first started captaining the Melbourne Renegades and then Pune [Warriors]. You want everyone to be so good, and you expect a lot of other people and from yourself as well. I didn't get the balance right when I first started captaincy, and even towards the back end, there were still times when I was an emotional captain. I tried to control it as best I could, but it's just the reality of it when it's high stakes and high pressure. I was always pretty good at separating the two, and understanding that my job as a batsman is to get runs at the top of the order. I was able to compartmentalise. That wasn't a part that I ever stressed about, or felt like it weighed me down. Maybe [it did] slightly towards the back end of my career, when I knew that I was coming to the end and I wasn't performing as well as I would have liked - and you had guys like Travis Head waiting in the wings, ready to go. The ability to sit down and try to find 1% or 2% edges on an opposition is the part of it that I loved I was a good enough player to keep getting picked, or I just wasn't quite good enough to be that one- or two-franchise type player. Of course, I'd have loved to stay at one franchise the whole time. But that's one part of having a mega-auction every three years. Players probably missed that opportunity to really build a legacy at a club. There's not a huge amount of players that have done it right throughout. Even Rohit [Sharma] started at Deccan [Chargers, before moving to Mumbai Indians]. Aaron Finch: 'In T20, one ball can change the game. It's about taking the emotion out of it',September 2025,Cricinfo by Matt Roller External links Category:Cricketers from Australia Category:Sports announcers Category:1986 births Category:Living people