Finch to play BBL before making call on international future

Aaron Finch won't rush into a decision over his international future following Australia's exit from the T20 World Cup, instead giving himself a chance to see how this season's BBL goes.

Having retired from ODIs in September, there are no international commitments for Finch until next August when Australia have T20s in South Africa. The next T20 World Cup is in West Indies and the USA in mid-2024 when Finch will be 37.

"No, I'm not going to retire. Not just yet," Finch told Seven as he arrived back at Melbourne airport on Sunday. "I'll play Big Bash and see where we sit after that, but I'm still enjoying playing cricket, playing T20."

It still feels unlikely that Finch will pad up again for Australia and if that's the case he will finish with 3120 T20I runs at 34.28 and a strike-rate of 142.53 including a top score 172. He continued to struggle for form at the World Cup with a painful innings against Sri Lanka, but rebounded somewhat with 63 off 44 balls against Ireland in what may have been his last international innings after a hamstring injury keeping him out of the Afghanistan game.

"There's not another international T20 until August, so there's quite a long break," he said. "Still plenty of time to be able to weigh all that up. It's been a pretty good ride regardless of what happens."

Finch's BBL season with Melbourne Renegades will start on December 15 against Brisbane Heat.

Speaking earlier in the day, head coach Andrew McDonald did not preempt any decision from Finch but noted that once conversations about retirement start that's often the way they play out.

"Any time that you, I suppose, start to think about it then the end will be one day closer, there's no doubt about that," he said. "I think the Big Bash will probably determine his future - how he goes there, his performances, how his body is holding up.

"His body has failed him here in terms of a hamstring strain that put him out of the World Cup...the next game is not until August next year so that gives him a lot of time to repair if he is willing to go on.

"If not, then I am sure that over the next couple of weeks he will have a think about that and call it a little bit similarly to what he did in the one-day international scene."

McDonald, who took over as head coach from Justin Langer earlier this year, offered no excuses for Australia's Super 12s exit of their home tournament.

"We have only got ourselves to really blame," he said, while forecasting personnel changes ahead of the next T20 World Cup. "We will go through what that looks like in terms of building towards the next World Cup

"There will be some natural turnover because of the gap and space and also the age profile of the team. So there will be some people that get some opportunities, albeit next August when we play T20 again."

Australia's next international action is a three-match ODI series against England which starts four days after the World Cup final. McDonald hinted that the early end to their tournament could mean a stronger-than-expected squad will be named. Pat Cummins was announced as the new ODI captain last month although he is not expected to feature in every series.