Melbourne 10th September : Australia white-ball skipper Aaron Finch, who will end his One-day international (ODI) cricket following the final game against New Zealand at Cairns on September 11th, believes there is no reason why batting veteran Steve Smith cannot replace him in the captaincy in the 50-ver team.Smith was Australia captain until the test series against South Africa in 2018 where he was removed of his position after the ball-tampering scandal that involved him and vice captain David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.
Smith and Warner were both banned for a whole year following the scandal, which was also referred to as “Sandpaper-gate”.Smith has returned to his leadership position, and was named deputy to Test captain Pat Cummins ahead of the Ashes series at home in the latter part of the year.
The departure of Finch who’s indifferent appearance in the ODI format is among of the reasons for the 35-year-old’s decision to leave the 50-over format has brought to the fore the ODI leadership issue as Australia prepare for the ODI World Cup in India next year.
With Test captain Cummins declaring he does not want to be in the captaincy of white ball, Smith has been identified as the most likely candidate.
“I am not sure (appointing Smith as captain would be a problem),” Finch was quoted in The West Australian on Saturday.
“He played as a captain in an (Ashes) Test match in Adelaide following Pat (Cummins) was diagnosed with COVID.
So I’m pretty sure that’s put to rest,” added Finch.
Finch believes Cummins could also handle the demands of captaining the team in all three formats , however playing in this many matches will be difficult for the pace bowler.
Cummins was rested for his 28 of 65 games in the last four years, as per the report.
“It’s quite difficult, but I’m thinking that if anyone could do it, the person to do it would be Pat (Cummins),” Finch said.”He is a remarkably resilient person.He has demonstrated a great management of the Test team and I’ve enjoyed being able to work with him.He does everything in his pace.He’s got the tools to achieve that.”
akm/
