'It wasn't unexpected' - Aaron Finch opens up on not getting picked in IPL auction

The IPL auction for the upcoming 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), hosted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on February 18 in Chennai delivered many shocks and surprises. One of the major highlights of the event was the aggressive opening batsman and Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch going unsold.

Finch is the only player to have featured for all the eight franchises in the past seasons of the T20 Championship but no team showed any interest in the Australian white-ball skipper for the 2021 edition and he went unpicked. The 34-year-old had represented Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2020 in the United Arab Emirates after getting picked for a whopping amount of INR 4.4 crore.

However, the opener had a below-par season as Finch failed to live up to the expectations and ended up scoring only 268 runs in 12 games at a poor average of 22.33. This resulted in the Bangalore outfit parting ways with the Australian cricketer and looking for another competent opening batsman.

A little bit of time at home might not be the worst thing: Aaron Finch

After getting snubbed at the IPL auction, Finch finally broke his silence on Sunday, February 21 saying that it wasn’t unexpected for him as he knew something like that might happen. While the batsman was disappointed for not getting to play cricket during the IPL window, he is looking forward to spending some quality time with his family.

Finch has been playing cricket continuously since August 2020 without any real break. Thus, the Australian skipper is excited about spending some time at home, away from the bio-bubble. “It would’ve been nice to be playing again, it’s an amazing competition to be a part of, but it wasn’t unexpected that I didn’t get picked up to be honest,” Finch said as quoted by Cricket.com.au

“I’d prefer to be playing cricket, but a little bit of time at home might not be the worst thing, having quite a full schedule since August when we left for the UK and a few times in quarantine and a lot of times in hubs and bubbles, I think just getting home and recharging the batteries might be nice. I know my wife’s definitely looking forward to it,” he added.