Finch not tempted by 'fairy tale' MCG finish

Outgoing Australia ODI captain Aaron Finch says he wasn't tempted to go for a "fairy tale" finish to his career and believes now is the perfect time to hand over the reins in the format.

Finch announced his retirement from the 50-over cricket on Saturday morning, with the 35-year-old keen to give his replacement enough time to make their mark on the side before next year's ODI World Cup in India.

Finch conceded that he was certain he wouldn't have made it to that tournament due to both form and injuries, with his left shoulder "giving (him) grief at the moment".

"Being a bit over 12 months out from the 50-over World Cup, I thought the timing was right now," Finch told reporters today in Cairns.

"It's important that whoever takes over the captaincy from now, whoever opens the batting from now is given the best opportunity to take the team forward and win the World Cup in 2023.

"I'm very comfortable and very confident that I wouldn't have made it that far."

Australia play a three-match ODI series against England in November following the T20 World Cup, with the final match to be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

And while it would have served as a fitting conclusion to the Victorian's time in the side, he was eager to take any selfishness out of the decision.

"I could have tried to play another series, the (ODI) series against England post the World Cup and that would have been a fairy tale finish at the MCG.

"But that's never been my style, to be self-indulgent in any kind of way."

It wasn't a snap decision for the opening batter though, with Finch admitting the thought of retirement had crossed his mind prior to the season commencing in Townsville three weeks ago.

His ODI form this year had been patchy at best, scoring 23, 0 and 0 in Pakistan and following that with 44, 14, 62, 0 and 0 in Sri Lanka.

"I'd thought about it (retirement) in the lead up to the to Zimbabwe series," Finch said.

"It wasn't a thing where I woke up in the morning and just knew, but I knew it was very close to coming to the end.

"The other day, I had a good chat with the coach Andrew McDonald after the Zimbabwe series and he wanted me to keep taking a bit of time and make sure that I was making the right decision.

"I think that you need to be able to give the new captain as much space and as much time to start to ingrain the way that they want to play and take the team forward."

Finch wouldn't wade into speculation about who would succeed him in the role but said Steve Smith and Pat Cummins would be both fine options.

Smith captained Australia in 51 ODIs between 2015 and 2018, while Cummins has never led the ODI side but took the captaincy of the Test side just before last summer's Ashes.

Wicketkeeper Alex Carey stood in as captain in 2021 when Finch had to leave the West Indies due to a knee complaint.

Finch will continue to lead the nation's T20 side that is preparing to defend their T20 World Cup crown on home soil next month and believes he still has what it takes to find success at the highest level, saying he doesn't see any crossover between the two white-ball formats.

"I think my T20 form has been pretty good for a little while now," Finch said.

"In terms of my personal game, there's not a huge amount of a difference (between ODIs and T20s).

"But over the last little while my numbers in T20 have been reasonably good and my ODIs haven't.

"Maybe it's a bit of intent. Maybe it's a little bit of risk taking that sometimes you get away with any T20.

"I'm not bothered by that one bit."

Finch has a contract with Melbourne Renegades for KFC BBL|12 and he hinted that next month's T20 World Cup would not necessarily be his end date for Australia, saying he would likely "reassess after the Big Bash".

Finch will play his 146th and final one-day international for Australia at Cazalys Stadium in Cairns on Sunday.

Men's Dettol ODI Series v New Zealand

Tuesday, Sep 6: Australia won by two wickets

Thursday, Sep 8: Australia won by 113 runs

Sunday Sep 11: Cazaly Stadium, Cairns, 2:20pm

Australia squad: Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Aaron Finch (c), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa

New Zealand squad: Finn Allen, Trent Boult, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ben Sears, Tim Southee, Kane Williamson (c)

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