Aaron Finch: Australia’s T20 captain retires from international cricket

Australia’s Twenty20 captain, Aaron Finch, said it was the right time to move on after calling time on his 12-year international career.

The 36-year-old on Tuesday announced his retirement from the shortest form of the game at the international level.

“The time is right to let the T20 team enter a new phase, to give them enough time and space to allow a new captain to take over and move in a new direction,” Finch said.

“Realising that I won’t be playing on until the next T20 World Cup in 2024, now is the right moment step down and give the team time to plan and build towards that event.”

He retired from one-day international cricket in September, but remained captain of the T20 side for last year’s unsuccessful World Cup defence on home soil.

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He brings down the curtain on his international career having amassed more than 8,500 runs across all three forms of the game, including five Test matches and 146 ODIs. He made his T20I debut in 2011 and went on to play 103 matches for Australia, leading the team as captain to World Cup success in 2021.

“Team success is what you play the game for and the maiden T20 World Cup win in 2021 and lifting the ODI World Cup on home soil in 2015 will be the two memories I cherish the most,” Finch said.

“To be able to represent Australia for 12 years and play with and against some of the greatest players of all time has been an incredible honour.”

He hangs up his gloves as one of the 20-over format’s most successful players; he twice held the record for the highest T20 international score – he made 156 against England in 2013 before beating his own record with a knock of 172 against Zimbabwe five years later – and holds two of the three highest scores in T20 international cricket.

Finch starred in the Big Bash League once again this season, scoring 428 runs for the Melbourne Renegades and being selected in the team of the tournament.

Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley paid tribute to Finch, calling the two-time World Cup winner a “master tactician, a natural born leader and an amazing influence on up and coming players”.

“I’d like to acknowledge his absolutely enormous contribution to Australian cricket,” Hockley said. “He is one of only four men’s player to captain Australia to a World Cup win. He holds to of the three highest every scores in T20 international cricket and he is a two-time World Cup winner.

“On top of this enormous list of on-field achievements, as importantly, he is a terrific person and a wonderful ambassador for the game.”

CA chair Lachlan Henderson said Finch would always have a special place in Australian cricket history.

“Playing at the highest level for over a decade requires incredible determination and dedication, so we thank Aaron for his enormous contribution and wish him all the best in the next phase of his career,” Henderson said.

His departure leaves CA looking for a new captain, although the governing body has time to conduct a search with their next T20 international not scheduled until September.

Finch suggested CA could look outside the current leadership group to find his successor and put forward the names of Travis Head and Ashton Turner.

“There’s plenty of guys who can do it,” Finch said. “Obviously Steve Smith has done it before and done a great job, Pat Cummins, I doubt whether he would want to do it with such a big workload.

“But there’s guys from the outside who could come in and have a big impact. Travis Head, Ashton Turner, these types of guys are experienced, they know how to win as well, so whichever way they [selectors] go, the team is in great hands.”