Australia admit their lowest limited-overs ranking for 34 years is a ‘fair reflection’ – but insist they can put things right by sticking to their own methods instead of copying England.
Aaron Finch will not be required to oversee the tourists’ attempt to avoid an eighth one-day international defeat in nine to their age-old Ashes rivals, because captain Tim Paine will be fit at Trent Bridge despite needing stitches on his upper lip during Saturday’s defeat in Cardiff.
Finch did, however, fulfill press-conference duties on Monday and spoke honestly about Australia’s current situation.
The World Cup holders fell to sixth in the International Cricket Council rankings after their 38-run defeat at Sophia Gardens, and must win in Nottingham to keep the five-match series alive.
Asked if that was a fair reflection of their performances of late, Finch said: “I think it is. We haven’t won any series for a while. I think we’ve just been outplayed in the last little while as well. That’s been disappointing.
“You can’t argue with the win/loss ratio, the way we’ve gone recently.”
Australia have slipped to their worst ODI ranking in 34 years.
— CricBlog (@cric_blog) June 18, 2018
6th place. Bangladesh are only 9 points behind.
Could you imagine Bangladesh getting ahead after Australia cancelled their visit?#ENGvAUS #ENGvsAUS #Cricket
Finch is not about to quibble with critics of a team which was failing to reach previous heights even before it had to get by here without banned captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner, as well as three injured frontline seamers.
“No doubt we’ve under-performed dramatically, I suppose, in the last 18 months in one-day cricket,” he said.
“There’s no shying away from that – you can’t hide (from it). I’m sure the results will come down the track. I’ve got confidence that will happen – but just for now, it’d be nice to get a few wins on the board to reinforce that what we’re doing is the right stuff.”
He remains optimistic as well as realistic. He added: “We’re still confident we can turn it round, this series.
“We know England are playing very well…but all it takes is a special spell from someone, or a great innings.
“There’s some real positives, but you still can’t deny the fact that we are number six – and that’s just down to not winning enough games.”
PLAY THE AUSSIE WAY
England have reinvented themselves since their own debacle at the last World Cup in 2015, but Finch is adamant it would be a mistake to borrow the hosts’ winning template. He said: “They play their own way. They go ultra-hard up top, rely on their spin a lot through the middle overs.
“I think if we tried to copy that, it would be foolish – because we play in a different style. We’ve won a lot of World Cups – we’ve got some guys in our changing room that have won them.
“I think what we do is right. We know it’s right. We’re confident – we’re all very good players.”
