A solidly-built, aggressive batsman from the country town of Colac in south-west Victoria, Aaron Finch ascended to become Australia's permanent ODI and T20I captain. He also made his Test debut in 2018 on the back of his white-ball form but the experiment of turning him into a Test opener only lasted five matches.

He made his first-class debut for Victoria aged 21 in a tour match against India in 2007 but did not play his first Sheffield Shield match until two years later. He established himself as a white-ball specialist for Victoria. He made his T20I debut for Australia in 2011 and his ODI debut in 2013 and wrote himself a place in the history books later that year when he made a then Twenty20 International world-record 156 against England, an innings which also included a record 14 sixes. He would set a new T20I record of 172 against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2018.

In 2014, Finch was named Australia's T20 captain, replacing George Bailey. But on the eve of the 2016 World T20 in India the selectors decided to consolidate the captaincy of all three formats and handed the job to Steven Smith. Finch at the time was the No.1-ranked T20 international batsman in the world, but found himself suddenly struggling to hold on to his place in the side. Finch had been an automatic selection in Australia's ODI and T20 teams, and had set the tone for their triumphant 2015 World Cup with 135 in their opening match against England at the MCG. Finch also captained the ODI team for the first time in 2017 for a series against New Zealand in Smith's absence.

In 2018, amid a meltdown in Australian cricket centered around the ball-tampering scandal at Newlands, Finch found himself installed as the permanent national white-ball captain and was selected to make his Test match debut against Pakistan in the UAE despite a modest first-class record. Victoria had not always viewed Finch in their preferred Sheffield Shield batting order, and nearly three years came between his second and third first-class centuries from 2011 to 2014. He made an unbeaten 288 against New Zealand in a first-class tour match in Blacktown in 2015-16, although that match was ultimately abandoned as the New Zealanders complained about the condition of the pitch. Finch made 62 and 49 on debut in Dubai but endured a form slump in the home 2018-19 season after trying to adjust his technique to Test cricket and was dropped from the Test side after five matches.

Finch remains an in-demand T20 cricketer having played for seven IPL franchises as well as Yorkshire and Surrey in England. He has also been a mainstay of the Melbourne Renegades side since the inception of the BBL and captained the Renegades to their first BBL title in 2019.

ESPNcricinfo staff