Abu Dhabi – Australia skipper Aaron Finch has backed out of favour batter David Warner to come good as the team gears up to play the first match of the ongoing T20 World Cup on Saturday.
Australia will lock horns with South Africa in the Super 12 match of Group 1 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
“I’m backing Dave’s ability. I’m backing his judgment. I think, if you look at his World Cup history, he’s just bloody good. Would he have liked more runs? Absolutely. Everyone would like more runs all the time,” said Finch in the pre-match press conference as per ICC.
“He’s one of the greatest players that Australia has ever produced, and I’ve got no doubts that come Game 1 he’ll be up and firing and ready to go,” he added.
Finch on the eve of the match also said the Australia squad is “in a pretty good space” and the players are excited about their tournament opener.
“I’m feeling really good. The knee is feeling great. It’s feeling a bit better than what I thought it would at this stage, to be honest. To be able to play those first two warmup games against New Zealand and India was crucial, I think. To get a few in the middle was nice,” said Finch.
“I think everyone’s in a pretty good space to be honest. The way the group’s come together, the feeling around the place has been brilliant. We’re really excited to kick it off tomorrow,” he added.
Speaking about the pitch for Saturday’s game, Finch said, “We haven’t actually seen it yet. We’ve been training on the outside ground. So that’s not something we’ve seen. We’re training straight after this. So we’ll get out there and have a look at that surface. We expect it to play pretty good. It always does here.”
Finch also backed Steve Smith to come good in the showpiece event since he is an “important” part of the Australia squad.
“I think any time Steve Smith bats, it’s great to watch. He’s someone who’s so versatile. He’s adaptable to all conditions, all scenarios in a game,” said Finch.
“We’ve seen him be someone who’s been a really high strike rate, or we’ve seen him be able to sort of resurrect an innings and get a team to a really good total. He’s a world class player. So he’s really important to the makeup of our team,” he added.