Aaron Finch will open the batting: The Australian batter will return to his usual batting position from the next match onward.
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Positives were bound to be found by Australia after losing a close first T20I against England in Perth earlier in the day. In what wasn’t a one-sided thrashing by any means, captain Aaron Finch chose to name pacer Nathan Ellis’ performance as their biggest positive from an 8-run loss.
Playing only his eighth international match, Ellis was the pick of the Australian bowlers with bowling figures of 4-0-20-3. Ellis, who bowled a couple of powerplay overs, gave away only 13 runs in his first two overs.
Been hit for a boundary on the first delivery of his third over, Ellis made instant amends by sending England captain Jos Buttler back to the pavilion on the following delivery. Given responsibility of bowling the penultimate over, Ellis not only picked a couple of wickets but, more importantly, also gave away only one run to not let England thrive in the slog overs.
“Nathan Ellis was outstanding on a good batting surface. He bowled two really good overs in the powerplay, one in the middle when they were going strong and one at the death,” Finch told Fox Cricket at the toss.
Aaron Finch will open the batting with David Warner in Canberra T20Is vs England
Bringing an end to all the speculation regarding their opening combination during ICC T20 World Cup 2022, Finch confirmed that he and batter David Warner will be opening the batting from the second T20I onward. With all-rounder Glenn Maxwell set to return on Wednesday, normalcy will be practiced by the defending champions with only a couple of matches remaining before the World Cup.
“I will go back to the top next game, that was always the plan. The games against the West Indies and this game was an experiment but I’ll go back in preparation for the upcoming World Cup,” Finch told Fox Cricket during the post-match presentation ceremony at the Perth Stadium today.
The development, in all likeliness, would bring an end to Australia experimenting with rookie all-rounder Cameron Green at the top of the order. For the unversed, Finch and Warner are sixth on the list of highest partnership runs in T20Is. Joint third-highest century partnerships to their name, the senior duo also has fifth-highest runs for T20I opening pairs.
