What is impressive is his consistency across all formats: Aussie ODI captain praises Virat Kohli
Finch has seen Indian captain Virat Kohli grow as a batsman from very close quarters over the past decade. He has played against him in the international circuit as well as in the Indian Premier League.
Opening batsman Aaron Finch has been a key figure in the Australian cricketing set up over the past few years. While he has had his share of ups and downs in his performance graph, Finch has come back strong led the team to the semi-final of the ICC World Cup in England last year.
Not considered for Test cricket until recently, Finch has been a consistent performer for the Aussies in limited overs cricket, averaging over 40 with the bat in ODIs with close to 5000 runs and close to 40 in T20 internationals with almost 2000 runs.
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But he knows that to be considered among the best consistency is the key. Speaking about players who are known for their ability to keep scoring runs, Finch named some present and past greats from India and Australia.
“Every player, regardless of who it is, has a bad series. But very very rarely do you see Kohli, (Steve) Smith, even going back (Ricky) Ponting, Sachin (Tendulkar), these guys they don’t have two bad series in a row,” Finch said on the Sony Ten Pit Stop show.
Finch has seen Indian captain Virat Kohli grow as a batsman from very close quarters over the past decade. He has played against him in the international circuit as well as in the Indian Premier League. The Australian is amazed at Kohli’s growth as a batsman across all formats.
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“What has been so impressive for so long is just his consistency across three formats. To be the best player of all-time in ODI cricket is one thing but then to also be in Test cricket and T20 cricket as a rounded player that is remarkable,”he said.
International cricket is on the horizon again with England taking on West Indies at home from July 8. Finch feels players will have to get used to the new set of interim rules, including the banned use of saliva to shine the ball.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone in England or the West Indies camp on how that’s (saliva ban) going to go. But that is something that the players have to adapt to over the next couple of months (or) however long that it lasts. Finding different ways to shine the ball, because I think naturally, just out of instinct or habit, you lick the fingers and you rub the ball.
“So I am sure there will be some inadvertent mistakes. Everyone has to be really flexible and accommodating and understand that things are going to be different to what they were four months ago,” added the 33-year-old batsman.