Australia could be without their white-ball skipper Aaron Finch for the three-match ODI series against West Indies, starting Tuesday, after the Victorian reaggravated a knee injury in the 5th T20I in St. Lucia. Should Finch be ruled out, the Aussies could be led by Wade, Carey or Henriques.
Australia could begin their three-match ODI series against West Indies on the backfoot as skipper Aaron Finch is a major doubt for the 50-over games after reaggravating a knee injury during the fifth T20I in St. Lucia on Friday. In the 16-run defeat, Finch struck an encouraging 23-ball 34, but injured himself prior to the knock. The 34-year-old reaggravated the right knee issue while fielding, briefly leaving the ground during the West Indian innings. The injury has put the Victorian’s participation in the three-match ODI series in doubt, particularly with the 50-over leg of the tour kicking-off in two days’ time.
Should Finch be indeed ruled out, one of the candidates in line to take captaincy duties is Matthew Wade, but the wicket-keeper conceded that ‘he has no idea’ what will happen. Wade is the vice-captain in the T20I side and led Australia in a T20I against India earlier this year, but the 33-year-old is not a regular in the 50-over format, having last played an ODI four years ago.
“Going forward in the one-dayers I have no idea what will happen there. I am probably not expecting to play, especially if Finchy plays, but if he doesn’t there might be an opportunity for me to play,” Wade was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
“I came over here thinking I would play the T20s and I wouldn’t play the ODIs. I think some of the younger guys would get some opportunities to play them which is fair enough, I’ve been around a long time now.
“But if Finchy doesn’t come up there might be an opportunity to play, so we’ll wait and see.”
Returning as captain would be quite a comeback to the ODI side for Wade, who last played 50-over cricket for Australia in 2017, and the southpaw admitted that he is someone who enjoys captaincy. Wade, who has led the Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL and Tasmania in domestic cricket, added that captaining at the highest level is ‘easy’ owing to the presence of several experienced campaigners.
“I love to captain whenever I get an opportunity. I captained in the T20s (against India last summer), and we’ve got plenty of different leaders here. Moises is a really good leader, Adam Zampa is getting better and better, ‘Starcy’ and ‘Hoff’ (Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood) go about their thing.
“Captaining is pretty easy at this level with those experienced guys around so if I got the opportunity I’d jump at it.”
Cricket.com.au have also reported that, outside of Wade, Alex Carey and Moises Henriques are other candidates who could fill-in for Finch should the incumbent not recover in time for the ODIs.
Australia are currently 3rd in the ODI Super League table, with 40 points from 6 matches (W4 and L2).