Australian superstar opening batsman Aaron Finch, who is going to play for Melbourne Renegades in the twelfth edition of BBL, has a message for his rivals: “Don’t write me off too quick”.
Aaron Finch, who hung his boots from the 50-over format recently, has been in poor form with the bat lately in T20Is as well. Many eyes will be on Aaron Finch during the tournament as his woes at the top of the order only worsen. He, however, is unlikely to bat in his regular opening slot this season and could bat at No.4 after filling the No.3 roll in Renegades’ practice match against the Stars.
The 36-year-old turned back the clock last Friday in the Renegades practice match against Stars with an unbeaten 79 off just 46 balls – his best score in any format since his 82 last January. Finch clear the air around this Big Bash season being his last, and said he is just excited to be back playing after a hamstring injury cut short his T20 World Cup.
“The last time I played was the Ireland game during the World Cup and then I had one game for Geelong in Victorian Premier Cricket.” he told reporters in Geelong last week before the Renegades travelled to Far North Queensland for their season opener. “Since then, it’s just been a little bit of training so I’m really keen to get back into it. Once you have a little break for a while, it gets the juices flowing again.”
Finch believes Renegades has a good team at their disposal with the mix of youth and experience and he is looking forward to play with those guys.
“I think we’ve added some real strengths to our group so for us it’s just about starting the tournament well,” Finch said. “In a 14-game season with games so close together, if you slip for a week or so it can put you out of the finals race, so we’ve got to be right on it from the start. In T20 cricket, experience counts for a lot.”
“Guys like Andre Russell and Martin Guptill have dominated world cricket for a long time, so they’re huge draw cards for our club. Peter Handscomb brings a lot of experience, Jon Wells has been someone who has really been the glue for Adelaide for a long time, so it was great to get him across. Tom Rogers has had a fantastic couple of years as well so adding in that real experience around a lot of our really talented young players is crucial.”
Melbourne Renegades will open their campaign against the Brisbane Heat on 15th December in Cairns.