Former want-away batsman Aaron Finch will spend at least the next three years with Victoria after deciding he did not need to move interstate to fix his red-ball woes.
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Victoria’s move a year ago to hold the destructive hitter to the last year of his contract, rejecting his bid to move to NSW, has paid off after a season in which the 27-year-old has cemented his position in both of Australia’s limited-overs teams and has regained his enthusiasm about his place within the Bushrangers.
In signing the deal, Finch has also reaffirmed his desperation to play Test cricket, a goal which remains possible despite him averaging under 20 in each of his past three Sheffield Shield seasons.
Finch began the past season with a priority spot in the Bushrangers’ shield team after returning from Australia’s one-day series in India in November, but was unable to make the most of his opportunity. In his 10 innings he only once passed 18, but when he did he fell just three runs short of his second shield century, at home to South Australia. He was dropped one match after the post-Big Bash League resumption of the shield, after Victoria’s innings demolition by NSW in Sydney.
Significantly, Finch has agreed to the new contract without the condition of having a priority spot in the shield team, derived from his sparkling limited-overs form.
For all but one of his five shield matches this season the right-hander opened the batting, as a replacement for Test opener Chris Rogers. In seven of those eight innings he was dismissed either bowled, leg-before or caught in slips.
While Finch got a king pair in his only middle-order appearance this season one strategy could be to try him again in the middle order, on the basis his red-ball batting approach is too expansive against the new ball. A precedent for that could be Mark Waugh, who enjoyed huge success opening for Australia in one-dayers but remained in the middle order in Test matches and in the shield.
In the past year, Finch has made three one-day centuries for Australia, scoring 667 runs at an average of 44.47. His Twenty20 form has been even better, thriving not only in the Big Bash League – he has won the Melbourne Renegades' player of the season in each of their three seasons – and Indian Premier League but averaging 48.25 with a strike-rate of 179.53 for Australia. That Twenty20 International form has lifted him to the top of the batting rankings before the World Twenty20 tournament in Bangladesh.
Once Finch finishes his Twenty20 duties with Australia and then with Hyderabad in the IPL he will embark on a full England county season with Yorkshire under former Australian paceman Jason Gillespie, which will give him an extended opportunity to improve his red-ball technique before the next shield season.
