Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 7: Aaron Finch announced his retirement from international cricket, after helping Australia win the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup for the first time. After Australia’s World Cup title defence ended before the semi-finals, Finch, a former one-day captain, departed from the 50-over game in September and used the domestic summer to make a decision about his T20 future.
The 36-year-old, who was Australia’s first T20 world champion in the United Arab Emirates in 2021, is a hard-hitting opening batsman and shrewd tactician who retires as one of his nation’s best limited-overs performers.
At his home Melbourne Cricket Ground, where he celebrated his first World Cup victory in the 50-over competition in 2015, Finch said it was time for a successor to make their imprint.
“Today, fully, I think the time is right to let the T20 team move on into a new phase, particularly with a World Cup coming up in 2024,” he told reporters.
Finch had a great Big Bash League season, blasting 428 runs at an average of 38.9 to help the Melbourne Renegades win their first T20 finals series in three years despite a falling run output prior to his ODI retirement.
The stocky Victorian was looking forward to spending time with his wife Amy and 1-year-old daughter Esther, but it wasn’t enough to convince him to stay.