Australia T20 captain Aaron Finch retires from international cricket

TIL Desk Sports/ Australia T20 captain Aaron Finch announced his retirement from internationals on Tuesday, drawing a line under a career that yielded two World Cup trophies and more than 8,000 runs across formats.

A hard-hitting opening batsman and keen tactician, the amiable 36-year-old bows out as one of his country’s greatest limited-overs players and as the captain who delivered Australia a first global T20 title in the United Arab Emirates in 2021.

Also the former one-day skipper, Finch retired from the 50-over game last September and then took the home summer to decide on his T20 future after Australia’s World Cup title defence ended before the semi-finals. At his home Melbourne Cricket Ground, where he savoured his first World Cup triumph in the 50-over tournament in 2015, Finch said it was time for a successor to make a mark.

“Today, fully, I think the time is right to let the T20 team move on into a new phase, particularly with a World Cup coming up in 2024,” he told reporters.