Despite the fact that the Australian cricket team ended up on the losing side in the recently concluded t20I tri-series including Pakistan and Zimbabwe on Sunday, their coach Justin Langer reckons that team players gained immense experience from the series. He also hinted that T20I skipper Aaron Finch can be seen taking the responsibility of ODI squad as well.
Talking to the reporters after the series loss, Langer said, “After this tour, we’ll have a really, really close look at everything we’re doing at the moment including our leadership, which is such an incredibly high priority in Australian cricket. Finchy has definitely put his best foot forward in this series. So we’ll look at that. We’ll look at all our staff. We’ll look at everything to make sure we keep flying forward, as is the expectation of the Australian cricket team.”
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Ahead of this series, Australia faced a 5-0 whitewash against England in the ODI series and Langer had hinted that current ODI squad Tim Paine may not be a long-term option to lead the ODI side. Finch’s performance in the tri-series has only bolstered his chance to become the ODI captain too. In the T20I tri-series, Finch amassed as many as 306 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 201.31. This also included his world record innings of 172 against Zimbabwe.
Speaking about the same, Langer said, “He’s been brilliant. Finchy and I spoke privately yesterday and I told him he’s done a great job at the top of the order. To have someone that dynamic is a great example to all our players. As we saw from Pakistan today, you’ve got to play fearless cricket. D’Arcy [Short] started taking steps towards that today, like we’ve seen from him in Big Bash cricket. That’s how he needs to play his cricket.”
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Australia was in total control after Glenn Maxwell struck twice in the very first over of the innings and put Pakistan under immense pressure. But Fakhar Zaman along with Sarfaraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik took the game away from the Aussies.
“You can’t take anything for granted against the number one team in the world, or any international team. They’ll hurt you if you’re complacent. I don’t think we were complacent, I think with the ball we just mis-executed and got hurt badly. Guys had really good plans, but just missed slightly, and that’s all it needs to be in T20 cricket against good players,” Finch concluded.
