Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch has on Friday (June 18) revealed that he was “a little bit surprised” after knowing that the top national cricketers were unwilling to travel to the West Indies and Bangladesh for the white-ball series next month.
As many as seven Australian cricketers – David Warner, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Kane Richardson, and Daniel Sams have pulled out of Australia’s upcoming white-ball tours of Bangladesh and the West Indies starting July 13.
Apart from them, Steve Smith was also ruled out of the tours due to an elbow injury. They all wanted to spend some time with their families after an extended stay in bio-secure bubbles.
Reacting to the development, Finch revealed that there was a “long-term plan” for Australia’s all-format stars Warner and Cummins to miss the 10 T20Is and three ODIs in West Indies and Bangladesh in July and August, but was surprised by other players’ decision to skip the tours.
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The skipper also said the players who have pulled out of the upcoming white-ball tours will “find it hard to justify” going back in the final stages of the IPL 2021 later this year in the UAE.
Finch told radio station SEN WA: “The other guys – I was a little bit surprised. I've chatted to them all – a little bit surprised but it's also understandable … but I wish that they were there. I think they would find it hard to justify going back and playing that second half of the IPL.”
He further added, “Just purely based on the workload coming up with a T20 World Cup and a huge home summer. It's really tough. It's a tough situation that everyone has been put in, but personally, I would find it hard to do that knowing how difficult it is and how challenging it is mentally, and on your family as well. That's what I would think.”
Finch also said the players’ call to skip the upcoming white-ball series against West Indies and Bangladesh has opened the doors for the other players to fight for the places in the Australian team for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021 in October-November.
He signed off by saying, “The guys who aren't there have probably left the door slightly ajar. What that looks like when the T20 World Cup comes around, we'll have to wait and see. But if you can get on the international stage against a very good West Indies side and Bangladesh team (and perform well), it carries a lot of weight.”
(With cricket.com.au Inputs)
