Australia’s white-ball captain Aaron Finch shocked the cricketing world with his sudden retirement from the 50-over format on Saturday. The announcement came ahead of the third ODI against New Zealand in Cairns. Finch will focus all his energy on the T20I format following his retirement from the ODIs.
Interestingly, Finch has not taken retirement from Test but the right-hand batter continues to be overlooked for the red ball format. He last played a Test match against India on 26th December 2018.
The explosive opener has been going through a tough time in the ODI format, having managed only a handful of runs in the 50-over format. His misery has continued in the ongoing Chappell- Hadlee series as well, as he was dismissed for a duck in the second match.
Finch has so far amassed 5401 runs in 145 ODI matches after making his debut in 2013. The Victoria-born batter has played with an average of 39.13 and a strike rate just shy of 88. Finch has won numerous accolades on the back of his hard-hitting batting. Let’s see some of his records in the ODI format.
Second Most ODI Centuries as captain for Australia
Finch ranks second when it comes to centuries as captains for the Australian team. He has scored six centuries while captaining Australia, only behind the legendary Ricky Ponting who has 22 to his name.
Fourth-most ODI centuries for Australia
Aaron Finch has 17 centuries to his name in ODIs, which is the fourth most for an Australian batter behind Steve Waugh (18), David Warner (18) and Ricky Pointing (26).
Joint-third for most centuries against one team in ODI
The right-hand batter has played his best cricket against the England side and has hit seven centuries against the arch-rivals. This is the joint third highest against a single opponent in ODIs.
2015 World Cup winner
Finch’s most memorable accolade would certainly be the World Cup win that he achieved in 2015. He also led his side to the T20I World Cup title in 2021.
Australia’s Men’s ODI Player of the Year (2020)
On the back of his sensational performance in 2020, producing 1141 runs at an average of 51.86, Finch was awarded the ODI Player of the Year. He defeated David Warner and Usman Khawaja for the title.
