Michael Clarke slammed Australian limited over skipper Aaron Finch over his remarks on IPL 2021 snub.
Michael Clarke slams Aaron Finch
But despite leading the Australian national team in the shortest format, Finch found no takers in the IPL Auction 2021. The right-handed batsman was released by Royal Challengers Bangalore in January, and earlier this week, when his name came up at the auction, no franchise made a bid for him.
On Sunday, Aaron Finch had told Cricket.com.au that his axing didn’t come as a surprise.
“It’s a wonderful competition to be a part of but it wasn’t unexpected that I wasn’t picked up, to be honest. “I’d prefer to be playing cricket, but a little bit of time at home won’t be the worst thing.”
Michael Clarke, who had earlier said that Finch was “definitely” one of the best top-order batsmen in the world, reiterated that he was shocked to see the gun batsman going unsold at the Chennai auction.
A puzzled Clarke added that as the Australian captain in the T20I captain, Finch should feel that he is wanted by all the franchises in the IPL.
“Well, like I said the other day, no IPL franchise; I can’t believe he come out and said, ‘oh yeah, I expected this to be the case,” Clarke said on the Big Sports Breakfast.
“You’re the Australian captain in that format, you should be expecting that every team wants you.
“And you’re allowed to have a bad series, like, even his BBL, if he’s got that attitude where he believes he’s as good as a player as he is, then he says, ‘you know what, I’ve had a bad BBL but all that means is with every less score I’m due for a big one, I’m due for a big one, I’m due for a big one.’ Not, ‘I expected no-one to pick me up.’
“I don’t get that.”
Finch, who averaged just 13.76 in 13 Big Bash 2021-21 innings, was dismissed for 1 in the first T20I versus New Zealand on Monday.
Australian players who remain unsold in IPL 2021 Auction
Meanwhile, apart from Finch, other Australian stars who remained unsold includ Alex Carey, Shaun Marsh, Marnus Labuschagne, Jason Behrendorff, Billy Stanlake, Matthew Wade, Hilton Cartwright, James Faulkner, Ben McDermott, Sean Abott, Joel Paris, Jack Wildermuth, Brendan Doggett, Mark Steketee, Ben Dwarshuis, Chris Green, Wes Agar, Josh Inglis, Nathan Ellis, Tanveer Sangha, Max Bryant, Jake Weatherald, Matt Kelly, Tim David, Aaron Hardie, and Nathan McAndrew.
