Australia’s Finch says he has fixed UAE IPL glitches ahead of India series

Sydney: Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch said he has ironed out the kinks in his batting ahead of the series against India after a lean run in the recent Indian Premier League (IPL), held in the UAE.

Finch managed just 268 runs, including one fifty, in 12 matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore, who are captained by India skipper Virat Kohli, and was dropped from the starting line-up before being recalled for the play-offs.

Since returning to Australia from the IPL, Finch has spent much of the two-week quarantine period fine-tuning his game under the watchful eye of assistant coach Andrew McDonald.

“It’s just a few balance things, just head position in my stance and small things like that I sometimes can forget about,” Finch said ahead of the one-day series opener on Friday. “You tend to get a little bit one-paced with your training, almost focused on power-hitting rather than a few minor technical things that can help you out. It hasn’t been anything huge, it’s a just a few steps I generally go to when things haven’t been as smooth as I would have liked.”

Finch said Australia would seek to dominate rather than contain the India captain at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.

“If you look at his record it’s second to none,” Finch said of Kohli, who averages nearly 60 in the 50-overs format. “I think what we have to keep in mind is that we have to keep looking to get him out. When you go away from that and you look to contain players you can miss a trick there. He’s probably the best one-day player of all time so it’s about sticking to our plans and being really committed in that regard.”

The teams will play three one-dayers and three T20s before the start of a four-Test series at Adelaide on December 17.