Australia captain Aaron Finch says he has stopped questioning himself and gone back to basics to discover the rich vein of form that has taken him to the top of the World Cup scoring charts.
Finch’s 153 helped Australia to a fourth win in five games in an 87-run victory over Sri Lanka at The Oval, and tied Jason Roy’s knock against Bangladesh for the highest individual score of the tournament.
In all, Finch has scored 343 runs in his five innings so far at the World Cup, 62 more than any other player, though only Australia have played five full games.
The 32-year-old’s improvement has mirrored that of the side as a whole, as they have gradually recovered from a torrid 2018 to become global contenders once more.
Finch revealed that a dark period of questioning his own ability ultimately proved the nadir prior to his current purple patch.
“I’ve probably just changed my mindset more than anything,” Finch said. “I started to doubt my game a lot before that, in the Australian summer.
“There were times when I was just questioning every single decision that I was making, whether it was technical, mental, physical. Everything that I was doing, I was just questioning.
“It was a really great learning curve for me over the [Australian] summer. Obviously it would’ve been nice to have that at 22, not 32.
“What I learned is that you can strip it back as much as you want but it doesn’t change the basics of the game.
"The basics of the game, as an opening batter, are to go out there and defend a good ball and score runs.
“[Domestic team-mate] Andrew McDonald always says to me, if you get caught at mid-on or you get caught at slip, you’re still out, so just play your natural game.”
