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The Australian selectors clearly like Aaron Finch. The Victorian was selected for the recent Australia A tour of Africa despite averaging 16 with the bat over the past two Shield seasons.
The hype surrounding the belligerent batsmen has even led to some cricket followers suggesting him as a potential candidate for this summer’s Ashes.
Finch himself told Cricinfo this week he believed he was prepared for Test cricket.
“I feel as though my game is ready to play well in four-day cricket and would be ready if I did get a gig in the Test team,” he said.
“It’s not a technical thing, just a mental thing with the four-day game. I feel as though I’ve made some good improvements in the last 12 months to be able to deal with that, and hopefully take that game to another level.
“To play Test cricket is my ultimate goal still, I definitely haven’t lost that ambition. I feel as though I’m now in a really good space to do that.”
The 26-year-old’s impressive deeds at limited overs level should not conceal his continued failures in first-class cricket, where he averages 29.56 after 33 matches.
Granted, the stocky stroke maker has played a string of dazzling innings for Australia in the past two months.
He caught the attention of the world cricket community with a staggering display of striking en route to making 156, including a record 14 sixes, in the T20 match against England at Southampton.
Finch followed that blitzkrieg with another belligerent effort just days later in an ODI against Scotland, caning the minnow side for 148 from 114 balls.
Then last week he lit up the one-off T20 encounter with India, smacking 89 to help Australia rack up a mammoth total.
He rode that wave of form to make 72 in the opening ODI contest against India on Sunday.
Undoubtedly, Finch is a gifted limited overs player and could be a fixture of Australia’s ODI and T2O sides for years to come.
But he remains a long way short of being even a solid first-class batsman.
In fact, he will be fortunate just to get a game for Victoria in the Shield this summer such is his record.
Over his past two Shield seasons for the Bushrangers, Finch has made only 300 runs in 11 matches.
Yet that was somehow deemed sufficient output to warrant a position at the top of the order for Australia A against South Africa and Zimbabwe in July.
Not surprisingly, he laboured in those three first-class matches, averaging 26 from six innings.
Admittedly, the drought in Australian batting talent meant there was not a wealth of options for the Aus A tour.
But selecting someone whose form over the previous two Shield seasons had been so dire sends a very poor message to the ranks of Shield players.
Finch’s efforts at first-class level appear to bely his talent and he may well develop into a good long-form batsman.
As it stands, however, his performances do not go close to matching the hype.
Australia’s Test batting stocks may be at their lowest ebb in decades, but that would be no excuse to pick a limited overs hitter like Finch.