“Hope this doesn’t finish him as a Test cricketer,” says Maxwell on Finch’s exclusion

Maxwell on Finch’s exclusion: The Australian all-rounder was vocal about Australian opening batsman’s exclusion from Sydney Test.

Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell is hoping for the selectors to not finish off batsman Aaron Finch’s Test career after him not scoring enough runs in the ongoing Test series against India.

Before being dropped for the fourth Test at Sydney, Finch had scored 97 runs in three matches at an average of 16.16 and a strike rate of 45.32. With him scoring a half-century at Perth, it counts for 47 runs in five innings at the top of the order.

In his interview with cricket.com.au, Maxwell hinted at selectors pushing Finch in Tests at his preferred batting position. “I hope that [being dropped] doesn’t finish Finch off as a Test cricketer and hopefully next time he gets an opportunity he can bat in a position that I think – and a lot of Australia thinks – he’s more accustomed to,” Maxwell was quoted as saying.

Finch made his Test debut against Pakistan last year. Having batted in the middle-order in Sheffield Shield and County cricket for quite sometime now, Finch was sent in to open the batting, a job he relishes in limited-overs format.

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Finch emerged out victorious in the given task, scoring the second-highest runs (181 runs at an average of 45.25 and a strike rate of 44.80) for Australia in the two-match Test series. Lesser did he know that it would call for him to take the same responsibility in the times to come.

Maxwell opined that Finch became a ‘victim of his own success’. “He was probably a victim of his own success in the UAE. Having batted so well as an opener there it probably drove the Australia selectors and coaches to put him up there [against India] and I suppose that was fair enough,” he said.

“Hopefully at some stage, he gets an opportunity to bat in the middle order and show the class he does have,” he further said.

Maxwell, who features in the Top 3 for batsmen with highest batting average in the Sheffield Shield, has been ignored by the selectors despite others not doing well. Speaking on his own exclusion from the Test side, he felt that piling some runs might press his case.

“They [selectors] think that I’ve got enough opportunities to have shown what I’ve got in the Test arena, and they weren’t happy with what they saw. Look, if I can pile some more runs on at the back end of this summer who knows, but, yeah, it’s too hard to concentrate on anything too far ahead.

They’ve picked their squad at the moment and I wish them all the best. I’ll be watching – I love watching the game – so I’ll be still watching them,” Maxwell concluded.

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