Australia’s 4-1 T20 series win over Sri Lanka may have played out in front of sparse crowds as attention turns elsewhere, but it can’t hide the fact that serious questions must be asked about the positions of two of the side’s elder statesmen.
You have to look a long way down the Australian batting averages to find captain Aaron Finch and former skipper Steve Smith, although the latter’s series was cut short by concussion.
Finch’s five innings yielded just 78 runs, while Smith mustered 23 from two. Perhaps more concerning is their strike rate, with Finch at 91.76 and Smith exactly a run per ball.
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The series continues a concerning trend for Finch, who was unsold in last week’s IPL auction, despite a decent BBL11 for Melbourne Renegades.
Since 2018, Finch’s strike rate in T20 Internationals has declined each year, starting at 176.41 in 2018 before falling to 158.08 (2019), 138.97 (2020), 125.06 (2021) and now 91.76 this year.
Although the focus is on the 35-year-old, teammate Matthew Wade pointed to similar speculation around David Warner’s form before last year’s T20 World Cup. Warner finished as the tournament’s second highest runscorer as Australia won the trophy for the first time.
“It feels like these questions have come before, potentially before the last World Cup, and after the first couple of games about David,” Wade said.
“Everyone had their say about Davey, and he got player of the tournament in the World Cup.
“Finchy is a class player and I’ve heard people questioning where he’s at. He averages 40 and strikes at 140 for a reason because he’s a class player, he’s the captain of our team.
“The questions are always going to come when you get a little bit older and you don’t do well in one series or not the next.
“But they’re class players for a reason and the best that we’ve had in T20 cricket ever and I don’t expect any change at the top of the order to be honest.
“Those two will be there in the World Cup, I’m confident in that and when the big game comes they’ll nail it.”
Wade might bring up Finch’s outstanding career record, but the fact remains that his last 17 matches have yielded an average of 20.00, a strike rate of 111, and just one half-century, figures that hardly demand selection.
Speaking on Fox Cricket, former Sri Lankan all-rounder Russel Arnold said Finch rarely looked like hitting his straps.
“My thoughts go back throughout the series, he’s hardly timed anything really nicely,” Arnold said. “That’s a worry. Every innings he has been scratchy, even the few runs he made.
“It is going to be a hard one (to pick). I don’t think a team can only go in with a captain only, you need all 11 players contributing.
“Finchy does know that he needs to score runs, and I think it’s weighing him down as well. Towards the end of your career, you start thinking a lot about it (the end).
“It’s a position Australia do have to make I think because the currency is runs at the end of the day.”
Speaking earlier in the series, Mark Waugh was another to admit that Finch was probably not an automatic selection.
“In the ideal world, we want to see Aaron Finch make runs and not have to talk about it,” Waugh said. “But we’ve been talking about this for the past 15 months.
“Now, he’s not the player he was, there’s no doubt about that, and I think the stats do back that up. His strike rate in all forms of T20 cricket — IPL, Big Bash and T20 Internationals — has dropped 20 points over the past two years, from 145 to about 125.
“He’s just not dominating like he used to. I think he’s a little uncomfortable against raw pace and wrist spin.”
Smith’s concussion denied him the opportunity to further push his case for retention, but the 32-year-old’s position is no longer set in stone. Like Finch, Smith was unsold in the IPL auction, but as Australia looks to the likes of Ben McDermott and Josh Inglis in the shortest form of the game, their inclusion will have to come at the expense of an established member of the side.
The former captain batted at number five in the two matches against Sri Lanka, having been at three or four since the 2020-21 summer.
With Mitchell Marsh now Australia’s first choice number three, Smith, who hasn’t reached 50 for Australia in a T20 since November, 2019, could find himself on the outer for the title defence later this year.
Ellyse Perry recently found herself watching Australia’s T20 matches from the bench, whether Finch and Smith find themselves in the same situation will make for fascinating watching.
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