Cricket News

Aaron Finch hints at T20I retirement after T20 World Cup

The eighth edition of the T20 world cup is slated to be held in Australia in October- November this year. The tournament could be one last hurrah for many of the members of the Australia T20 squad. The squad is an aging one and the end of the tournament could signal the winds of change for the Australian T20 side.

Australia will be defending its crown after winning the T20 World Cup last year in UAE.  They will be playing in front of their home crowd this time, and the limited-overs skipper, Aaron Finch wishes a fairytale finish to the tournament by lifting the cup in front of them.

“It might be a full stop on everything (several players retiring from T20Is, including him) if it goes to plan like that. Fairy tales can happen in sports. I think, just naturally, when guys get to their mid-30s, it’s going to be that way. Davey (Warner) just keeps going; he could play for another 10 years, I think, with how fit he is and how much he loves the competition and continuing to challenge himself,” Finch said to cricket.com.au during the 100-day countdown celebration to the mega event on Friday.

‘It’s going to be an incredibly tough competition’ – Aaron Finch on T20 World Cup
Finch also commented on the nature of the tournament and how tough it will be to defend the title against several quality sides in the competition. He gave the example of South Africa from last year’s tournament who failed to qualify for the knockout stages even after winning four out of their five games.

Notably, Australia themselves were in a sticky situation in the semi-finals against Pakistan and needed incredible innings from Wade, who was dropped earlier in the innings, to make it through to the finals. 

“It’s going to be an incredibly tough competition. We saw how brutal the format is with South Africa winning four out of their five games at the last World Cup and still not qualifying on net run rate. It’s just so brutal that you do need a bit of luck along the way. So let’s see,” he said.