'I used to wake up in the middle of the night' - Aaron Finch reveals his struggles against Jasprit Bumrah during India series

Aaron Finch has not played a Test since the 2018 Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against India. And it is highly unlikely that Australia’s limited-overs skipper would earn a recall to the Test team any time soon. In fact, it would not be at all surprising if he never plays another Test for his country in his career.

While the white-ball specialist began his Test career well with a half-century in Dubai against Pakistan in 2018, his form petered out just a couple of months later. He was exposed against the ball coming in against India and the man who troubled him the most during that series was Jasprit Bumrah. Finch looked helpless in front of Bumrah as the latter toyed with him.

Bumrah made Finch restless

Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Aaron Finch twice in six innings and troubled him throughout. Finch made just 97 runs in across three Test before being finally dropped. The struggle in Tests saw his form dip in ODIs and T20Is too before he made a timely return to form at the summer’s World Cup. Well, Finch spoke about his struggles while facing Bumrah in the documentary The Test by Amazon Prime.

The documentary covers Australia’s journey from the low of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal to the high of retaining the Ashes in the UK last year for the first time since 2001. In the documentary, Finch made it clear that Bumrah was all over his mind.

He revealed that he used to wake up in the night during the India series, thinking that Bumrah has dismissed him again. “I used to wake up in the middle of the night thinking Bumrah would get me out again,” the 33-year-old said in the documentary.

Jasprit Bumrah was in stunning form in that series and troubled not only Finch but all the other Australian players. The right-arm pacer was the joint highest wicket-taker in the four-match series and played an integral role in the historic 2-1 triumph. It was India‘s first-ever Test series win on the Australian soil. Fortunately for Australia, Aaron Finch regained his form soon and is one of their best ODI and T20I batsman now.

He is currently busy leading them in the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand. Finch will be hoping that his team gets back to winning ways after losing five ODIs in a row this year.