Aaron Finch hits back at Michael Clarke over 'sucking up to Virat Kohli' accusations

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke had started a huge debate among the cricketing fraternity with his comments on the 2018-19 India tour of Australia. Michael Clarke had claimed that Australian players were sucking up to Virat Kohli and did not sledge him during their tour Down Under to save their Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts. However, Australia's current limited-over skipper Aaron Finch has dismissed the claims.

ALSO READ | Virat Kohli can match Sachin Tendulkar's 100-century mark if he plays for 24 years: Pathan

Aaron Finch dismisses Michael Clarke's claims

While speaking to Sports Tak, Aaron Finch said that the Australian players were obviously not being nice to impress because they wanted an IPL contract. He added that if you ask anyone playing on the field, they will tell you that it was very very tough. Aaron Finch further said that the series was played in the right spirit but it was very tough. He also expressed his amazement at the claims saying he is not sure where all of was coming from.

Elaborating on Australia being nice, Aaron Finch said that the team was going through a transition and there were a lot of players trying to find their way in international cricket and doing that against India is not an easy task. Speaking from a batsman's perspective, Aaron Finch said that you can’t hide against an attack which has the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.

ALSO READ | Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni called 'bears' by IPL pundit Dean Jones

Aaron Finch also said that Clarke told they were being nice but people were just trying to find their own game, they were trying the best way to play Test cricket. However, he said that everyone is entitled to their views and Clarke might have seen something from the outside which the players didn’t see from the inside.

Finch is not the only Australian ofcourse to have hit out at the World Cup 2015 winning captain for his comments in terms of the team going soft on Virat Kohli. The likes of Australian Test captain Tim Paine, vice-captain Pat Cummins and former batsman and IPL pundit Dean Jones echoed Finch's opinion and so did Indians as well such as VVS Laxman and K Srikkanth, who have been involved in the IPL in the past as well.

Aaron Finch snubs Sachin Tendulkar from his all-time India-Australia XI

Over the years, India and Australia have produced several legendary cricketers. Aaron Finch was recently asked to pick an India-Australia XI and the Australia skipper made it clear that he struggled with it. While speaking to Sports Tak, Aaron Finch said that Virender Sehwag is his No.1 pick because of how dominant he was. 

He added that he would have wanted to go for Rohit Sharma as his record is amazing, but he would pick his countryman Adam Gilchrist to open with Virender Sehwag so he went with the dynamic wicketkeeper-batsman. Aaron Finch snubbed legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar from his team, which comes as a surprise considering his records and his staggering numbers against the Australians.

ALSO READ | IPL: Brad Hogg says Virat Kohli is a better limited-overs batsman than Rohit Sharma, here's why

However, Aaron Finch's next pick was two-time World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting. At No. 4 is current India captain Virat Kohli, who is considered one of the best batsman of modern times. Aaron Finch then picked Hardik Pandya at No. 5 and followed by Andrew Symonds. Finch's next pick was MS Dhoni, who occupies the No. 7 position. Aaron Finch could not between pick Adam Gilchrist and MS Dhoni since the team can only have one wicketkeeper, claiming that it does not matter.

In the bowling department, Aaron Finch went with Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath and Jasprit Bumrah. However, he couldn't decide the spinner in his team. Finch was perplexed between Brad Hogg, Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja and added that it was too hard to decide.

ALSO READ | IPL: Rohit Sharma should lead India in T20Is, not Virat Kohli: Ajit Agarkar

IMAGE COURTESY: AP