Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch has undergone successful knee surgery on Thursday (August 12) and he now expects to be fit for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021 to be played between 17 October 2021 and 14 November in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman.
The 34-year-old opener aggravated his right knee injury during a T20I against the West Indies in St Lucia last month and subsequently missed the ODI series as well as Australia’s horrendous tour of Bangladesh.
The opener underwent knee surgery on Thursday to repair cartilage and with the recovery expected to take 8 to 10 weeks, he would be hoping to be fit for the T20 World Cup 2021 later this year.
Finch told Sportstar on Friday (August 13): “Jumped in for a quick procedure yesterday... I am on pain killers at the moment, and now all roads lead to recovery.”
Australia recently suffered a humiliating defeat of 1-4 to Bangladesh in a T20I series, which was their fifth successive series defeat in the shorter format of the game, but the skipper denied hitting the panic button despite his team's poor run ahead of the T20 World Cup.
He said, “Let’s wait and see how we go at the World Cup, and after that, we will see what the perception [around the middle-order] looks like. We are out there giving it a crack every time we step on the field, no matter which team we have in the park. We are representing Australia. At the moment, I don’t think there is a problem.”
As the conditions in the UAE and Oman are likely to help spinners, Finch didn't rule out a spin-heavy bowling strategy for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021.
He further noted, “The makeup of the team will depend on the conditions. If it is similar to Bangladesh I can’t see why three spinners can’t play in the same team. I actually don’t have any inputs in the squad, my job is to just get out there and captain the team. George Bailey [new chairman of selectors of the Australia men's team and his colleagues] will be selecting the squad.”
Finch signed off by saying on the availability of Australian players for the second half of IPL 2021, "It will be judged on a case by case basis by the player and the management."
