Australia's new Twenty20 leader Aaron Finch
could be forced to make his captaincy debut without two members of his
squad, depending on the results of the Champions League T20 semi-finals.
Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins and Cameron Boyce are all officially part of
Australia's 13-man squad for Sunday's one-off T20 against Pakistan in
Dubai, but they may not even be in the country.
All three are part of teams that have made it to the semi-finals of the
Champions League - Maxwell with Kings XI Punjab, Cummins with Kolkata
Knight Riders and Boyce with Hobart Hurricanes. Either one or two of
those teams will make the Champions League final, to be played in
Bangalore on Saturday, and Cricket Australia has already confirmed the
CLT20 will take precedence.
"Due to the condensed nature of the schedule, should any Australian
player be required for the Champions League final they will be deemed
unavailable for the T20 international against Pakistan on October 5,"
Cricket Australia said in a statement in September, when the squads for
the UAE tour were announced.
Remarkably, that effectively means playing for Australia is being
treated as a lower priority than appearing for a domestic team. The
circumstance could be especially frustrating for the legspinner Boyce,
who has played only one game in the CLT20 and might not make the
Hurricanes' XI if they reach the final, yet could also be denied the
chance for an international debut.
"If they're available, great, if they're not, there'll be someone else
to step into their shoes," Finch said in Dubai. "In Maxwell's case,
we've got a couple of guys here as cover. Phil Hughes is here for the
one-day series coming up so it might mean he slots into the side
somewhere.
"But it's exciting for those guys to play in a world tournament. It's
just another thing that gets thrown up and you have to embrace it. The
Champions League is such a big competition and a world competition now,
guys have to be given the opportunity to perform there on that stage.
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"We'll probably know our XI once the Champions League semi-finals have
happened. If there's a spot there, we're going to have to fill it.
Whether it's Hughesy, whether he bats at the top of the order or in the
middle order if he gets an opportunity, we'll have to wait and see.
"Nathan Lyon started his career as a Twenty20 player and did an
exceptional job. He's had some good success when he's played
limited-overs cricket as well. They'd be very well placed to fill a spot
if need be."
However, the situation is far from ideal as Finch takes over the
captaincy of Australia's T20 side from George Bailey, who stepped down
last month. Finch will become the seventh man to lead Australia in the
T20 format and the nature of international T20 scheduling means that he
will not have many games in charge before the World T20 is contested in
India in 2016.
Finch has impressed when leading the Melbourne Renegades in the BBL and
the selectors considered him the stand-out candidate to replace Bailey
in the national side. He said he would take his aggressive approach from
domestic leadership to the international side as well.
"In Twenty20 cricket you have to take some risks every now and then,"
Finch said. "Sometimes they come off, sometimes they don't. I think I've
played enough cricket now to get more of a feel for the game and see
where it heads. But I think I'll be quite aggressive.
"We've got some really good all-round skilled players. I think you can
use that to your advantage. It doesn't mean you have to stick a hell of a
lot to one particular style of game plan. You can chop and change quite
a bit. That's what you should expect from me."
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