India’s long-awaited tour of Australia is finally set to kick off with the first ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday. Australia will be keen to exact revenge for their series defeat to India the last time around. Besides India’s historic 2-1 triumph in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy during their tour in 2018-19, India also secured the ODI series 2-1 and the drew the T20Is 1-1. It was the first time that Australia did not win a single series on their soil against India and it’s a trivia that sits very prominently on captain Aaron Finch’s mind.
Another huge aspect to the India-Australia is Virat Kohli. The India captain will be the cynosure of all eyes as he is set to return home after the first Test for the birth of his first child. In all, Kohli has seven innings to make an impact, but while the India skipper would want to make most of his truncated tour, his counterpart Finch will look to spoil the party for Kohli.
However, having shared the dressing room with Kohli recently in the IPL 2020, Finch is aware there isn’t much he can do to stop a batsman of Kohli’s calibre, whom the Aussie captain believes is probably the ‘best one-day player of all time’.
“If you look at his record it’s second to none. “It really is remarkable. I think what we have to keep in mind is that we have to keep looking to get him out,” Finch said ahead of the first ODI.
“When you go away from that and you look to contain players you can miss a trick there. There’s not too many chinks in his armour. He’s probably the best one-day player of all time so it’s about sticking to our plans and being really committed in that regard.”
The presence of quality, in-form all-rounders such as Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Marsh and others impresses Finch as it gives the Australia captain plenty of combinations to work with.
“What Maxi’s shown in T20 cricket in particular is his bowling keeps improving all the time. I think Marcus Stoinis has proved that as well with the amount of exposure he’s had over the past couple of years bowling at the death, it’s really important for us and it gives us a lot of flexibility in there,” Finch said.
“In England we had the three allrounders with Mitch (Marsh) so you can dissect the 10 overs a little bit easier, I guess. You’re still expecting when that fifth bowler is, or the combination of allrounders are, bowling that minimum 10 overs that they’re still having an impact on the game.
“It’s not about picking allrounders just for the sake of it, it’s also a key bowling spot as well.”
