Australia’s limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch has on Thursday (14th February) described the last six months of his career as the most difficult he has ever faced.
The right-hander has been struggling to put in a good show with the show for his team ever since his Test debut last year against Pakistan in the UAE.
However, the 32-year-old made an impressive start to his Test career against Pakistan, but he was badly exposed in the home Test series against India, against whom the opener scored just 97 runs in six innings before being dropped from the national squad for the final Test.
Besides the longest format of the game, Finch's poor form with the bat was also continued in the one-day internationals against India, totaled 26 runs in three games.
Following his awful form with the bat against India, who won both historic Test and ODI series here, Finch was ignored for the Sri Lanka Tests, which Australia won 2-0 at home recently and the batsman has admitted that it was really challenging for him to produce runs in Test cricket while also juggling captaincy duties in limited overs cricket.
Finch told SEN Breakfast on Thursday, “Probably the last six months have been the most difficult of my career in terms of chopping and changing formats.”
He continued, “Making my Test debut and playing a bit more Test cricket was probably a mental challenge more than anything. To play in Dubai and then come straight back into an ODI and T20 series and Test matches - it’s probably been the longest sustained period that I’ve played cricket for Australia. It was quite mentally challenging and something that I probably didn’t give the guys who played all three formats of the game enough credit (for) in the past.”
Meanwhile, Finch has insisted that he isn't giving up on the Test dream despite overlooking for the home Sri Lanka series, saying the Test experience has been great so far.
Finch signed off by saying, “It does wear you down a little bit, but at the same time, it’s been amazing. I wouldn’t change it for anything. It was a great learning experience for me about my game and myself, but also the management of my own time and my own emotions.”
(With SEN Breakfast Inputs)
