Former Australia captain Aaron Finch has donned the hat of an expert and commentator after his retirement from professional cricket. Ahead of the start of the second Ashes Test between Australia and England at The Gabba in Brisbane from December 4, the 2021 T20 World Cup-winning team captain has offered crucial advice to English players who failed to impress with their batting performances in the series opener played at the Optus Stadium in Perth last week. In the first Test of the 2025-26 Ashes series, England suffered a humiliating defeat by 8 wickets inside two days, and their batters failed to cross the 200-run mark even in both innings.
Finch, who made a big name for himself in white-ball cricket but was not able to achieve the same success in Test cricket as an Australia player, feels England players need to understand that they don’t have to hit every ball for a four.
Speaking on the ESPN Cricinfo show, Finch said, “You don’t have to hit every ball for four. You’re allowed to leave it, and that’s what was so disappointing. I think, about the way that England went about their innings is they’re driving on the up at Perth. You can invest half an hour, an hour, or a session into your innings and then get rewarded later on. You don’t need to be rewarded in the first 10 minutes of a Test match. You can grind them down; there are five days.”
Finch’s former Australian teammate Callum Ferguson was also part of the show, and he added, “Well, that was what we were always taught in Australia when you went over to Perth to play. Give yourself an extra 20 minutes, and the Gabba with a pink ball will probably be pretty similar. But they have got to learn as quickly as possible here.”
England have not won a Test match in Australia since January 2011, and if the Poms want to end the 14-year-long wait for a Test in Australia, their batters will have to come up with a much-improved show in the remaining four matches of the high-profile series.
It will be interesting to see if the England team management decide to retain Zak Crawley in the playing XI after his pair of ducks in the series opener or replace him with the likes of Jacob Bethell or Will Jacks.
