Australian internationals Aaron Finch and James Muirhead must fix fundamental flaws to regain their spots in Victoria’s Sheffield Shield team, coach Greg Shipperd says.
Finch and Muirhead are among five players axed from Victoria’s team for the Shield match against South Australia starting in Adelaide on Thursday.
Fellow short-form internationals Clint McKay and Dan Christian were also dropped in a blunt response by Shipperd to four consecutive Shield losses.
Finch was Australia’s player of the series in the limited overs series against England last month, but can’t transfer that form into the Shield, where he averages 14.8 this season.
“It’s an intriguing question, both for the coaching staff and for Aaron,” Shipperd told reporters in Adelaide on Wednesday.
“He’s a supremely confident player in the shorter forms of the game but we all know that it’s a different environment out there in first-class cricket.
“Aaron still needs to continue to work on his defensive skills, on clearing and clarifying his game plan.”
Shipperd said Finch’s problems were both technical and mental.
“Defensively we want him to smooth out some of his movements,” he said.
“But we know he’s an attacking player, and so it is then about knowing when to apply those attacking skills in four-day cricket.
“It’s a tricky balance to find and he’s still searching for it.”
Muirhead, a 20-year-old spinner who has played three first-class games – and the same number as Twenty20 internationals – has similar problems.
“It’s a little bit like Aaron’s situation – a different environment, different wickets, different batting intent and different circumstances,” Shipperd said of the spinner who took 0-61 from seven overs in last week’s Shield game against NSW.
“He’s a player of the future that needs to be carefully managed.”
SA are equal top with NSW on 24 points entering the clash against the last-placed Bushrangers (eight points).
Teams:
South Australia: Johan Botha (capt), Tom Cooper, Callum Ferguson, Travis Head, Michael Klinger, Tim Ludeman, Joe Mennie, Gary Putland, Sam Raphael, Kane Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Adam Zampa (12th man to be named)
Victoria: Matthew Wade (capt), Fawad Ahmed, Scott Boland, John Hastings, Michael Hill, Jon Holland, David Hussey, Glenn Maxwell, Rob Quiney, Jake Reed, Marcus Stoinis, Cameron White (12th man to be named)