Australia’s white-ball captain Aaron Finch said the tourists must play their “best cricket” to challenge “great” England and counter dynamic World Cup champions’ “firepower” in the upcoming three-match One Day International (ODI) series starting on Friday (September 11) in Manchester.
Finch and his brigade are set to renew their ODI rivalry with fierce rivals on Friday after having lost 11 of their last 13 games in the 50-over format of the game and the skipper said they are ready for the challenge against England at their own hard-hitting game.
England has been dominating the ODI cricket for the past four years and even won the maiden World Cup last year and Finch admitted that Eoin Morgan and his team still has the great benchmark and are constantly aggressive with both bat and ball and he is looking forward at great fun in the upcoming ODI series.
Finch told reports ahead of Friday’s ODI: “They are still going to be a great side for a while and it’s up to us and everyone around the world to keep challenging them and play our best cricket. They've had the wood on us in the recent past, no doubt, and that's fine - we're not looking behind us, we're looking forward to starting well.
The opener continued, “It's a great challenge and it's great fun playing against England because you know you're in a contest every ball. Anything can happen and you have to be prepared to take it right to them. Any time you play England you can't play at 90 percent, you have to bat 100 percent to beat them. We're excited about that challenge. They're a side who've got firepower with ball and bat. They've got the experience and they keep coming at you.
There's no part in a 20-over game or 50-over game where you can take your foot off the gas because there will be someone there to take the game away from you. They had a great four years and capped it off with a great World Cup win.”
Finch signed off by saying, “They are constantly aggressive, you're always in a position where you have to take decisions all the time. There's not a five-over block or 10-over block where the game takes care of itself, you've got to keep making plays.”
(With Skysports Inputs)
