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Australian T20 captain Aaron Finch is set to announce his retirement from international cricket.
The 36-year-old has called a news conference for 10:30am on Tuesday, when he is expected to finish an impressive run that produced more than 8,500 runs in all three forms of the game.
Finch played 103 T20 matches to go with 146 ODIs and all five of his Tests since his international debut in a T20 match against England in 2011.
Finch celebrates a great score in Australia’s victory over Sri Lanka in the 2021 T20 World Cup as he led Australia to a breakthrough title
The aggressive batsman and his wife Amy stepped out at the Australian Cricket Awards last month.
Finch, a native of the country of Victoria, is one of Australia’s best limited overs players, and will go down as one of the best T20 opening batsmen of all time, if not the best.
His 19 international centuries and 51 half centuries in all three formats underpin his individual brilliance.
But undoubtedly the highlight of his career was captaining Australia in both ODIs and T20s, leading the country to its breakthrough T20 World Cup triumph in 2021 when the team were underdogs.
Aaron Finch shakes hands with a smiling Queen Elizabeth II ahead of the 2019 ODI World Cup in England
The suave and soft-spoken opener was also part of Australia’s ODI World Cup victory in 2015.
Finch retired from ODI cricket after a series against New Zealand last September before leading Australia in their unsuccessful T20 World Cup defense on home soil, for which the team was widely criticized with the captain saying the team I was tired”.
The blockbuster opener said cricket.com.au that he wanted to test himself in the Big Bash League before making a decision and his body was telling him that his time was up.
“I always wanted to get through the Big Bash and reassess after that, and I found my body was sore after a BBL game and it took me a couple of days to recover,” he said.
‘He (Australian coach Andrew McDonald) said give yourself time to make a decision that is not emotional but that is right for you and your family.
‘I feel like that’s what I’ve done.
“I thought a lot about it, but with a big break between games, it gives everyone involved time to plan and prepare for the next T20 World Cup in 2024 (in the West Indies and US) because I don’t see myself getting there. absolutely.
“It would be a disservice to the position and to the team to play for purely selfish reasons.”
“I’ve been very lucky to play for 12 years, and I think the team is in a very good position now for me to move on.”
Finch said there were plenty of candidates to become Australia’s next T20 captain.
‘Obviously Steve Smith has done it before and done a great job, Pat Cummins, I doubt he’d want to do it with such a heavy workload; he said.
“But there are guys from the outside who could come in and have a big impact.
“Travis Head, Ashton Turner, these types of guys have experience, they also know how to win, so whichever way (the selectors) go, the team is in good hands.”
Having made his international debut aged 24, Finch has been one of Australia’s most consistent batsmen for the past decade, but unfortunately in recent years he has been considered extremely lucky by many to have remained in the team.
But Aaron Finch’s story will remain a fairy tale.
Aaron Finch with his daughter Esther after a game for the Renegades during the just finished Big Bash
The first match averaged in the teens for three consecutive seasons for Victoria in Sheffield Shield cricket, and was destined to remain in the lower echelons of the game, but then came T20 cricket.
Australia manager John Inverarity gave Finch a clearance in 2013 after seeing something in him he liked, and the Victorian responded with gusto, shooting 156 of 63 balls.
At the time, it was the highest score achieved in a T20 International, before Finch broke his own record by going an astonishing 172 of 76 against Zimbabwe in 2018.
While his international form declined considerably towards the end of his glittering career, Finch is expected to continue playing on the domestic T20 circuit after a strong season for the Melbourne Renegades at the Big Bash, being selected in the team of the tournament for his 428 runs. .