Selector says Finch will be captain for World Cup

National selector George Bailey has clarified the captaincy future of Aaron Finch, confirming the incumbent skipper will lead Australia at this year's T20 World Cup in India.

The debate around Finch's place in the side comes with the opener suffering a considerable form slump over the past six months at franchise, domestic and international levels.

But Bailey, who is in New Zealand with the T20 squad, says Finch will continue to lead the T20 side, labelling the speculation around the captain's position as "white noise".

"He's got a terrific average, he's the captain of this side and he'll be the captain of this side at the World Cup," Bailey told News Limited.

Finch has been Australia's T20 captain since June 2018, leading his side to the top of the ICC team rankings and posting a world-record score of 172 against Zimbabwe.

But in recent times the right-hander has failed to put big scores on the board.

Playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League late last year, Finch averaged 22.33 in 12 innings. He then went straight from the UAE into a bio-secure bubble with the Australian team for white-ball series against India (where he suffered a glute injury) then into the BBL for the Melbourne Renegades.

The 34-year-old had about a week at home after the Renegades' second match before returning to lead the side on Boxing Day. He ended the season averaging 13 as the Renegades finished last for a second consecutive season.

Despite the lean run, Finch said he felt he was hitting the ball well and used the 14 days in quarantine to tweak his batting technique ahead of the five-match series.

But scores of one and 12 against the Black Caps intensified the spotlight on his spot as Australia slipped to 0-2 down.

Having spoken to Finch about his summer, Bailey says the captain could have benefitted from a longer break from cricket to refresh and get his game back on track.

"He was pretty zonked," Bailey said. "But he tried to do the right thing and get back to help a young Renegades side.

"His reflection on that was that he probably should've sat longer out and come back a bit fresher.

"What we got (in New Zealand) was the freshened up, train your backside off for a couple of weeks (version of Finch) – and again he's hitting the ball so well in the nets."

While Finch's form has led to some pundits to call for his axing, his teammates have thrown their support behind him.

Kane Richardson, who has played under Finch at the Renegades and Australia, is backing his skipper to find a way out of this rut just as he has done in the past.

"It'd be a different story if this was something he hadn't faced at some point in his career but, to be honest, everyone goes through this at some point," Richardson said on Friday.

"He'll work it out. He's a gun, he's played so much T20 cricket in all different conditions so it might just take one innings to click, to get off to a flyer and get through the Powerplay and he'll be away.

"I'm sure his mental strength will get him through this because he's done it before."

Qantas T20I tour of New Zealand 2021

Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.

New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Hamish Bennett, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, *Martin Guptill (pending fitness test), Kyle Jamieson, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert (wk), Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee. *Finn Allen (on stand-by for Guptill)

1st T20: New Zealand won by 53 runs

2nd T20: New Zealand won by four runs

3rd T20: March 3, Sky Stadium, Wellington, 5pm AEDT

4th T20: March 5, Eden Park, Auckland, 5pm AEDT

5th T20: March 7, Bay Oval, Tauranga, 12noon AEDT

All matches will be shown live in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo