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Overlook the number of times Justin Langer has described beleaguered Aaron Finch as a good bloke who will come good.
All Langer is doing is playing the national selector’s exclusive card of pigeonholing.
Finch has been pigeonholed as ODI captain no matter how few runs he scores, because there are no outstanding alternatives.
There are two obvious contenders but both are ineligible, with Steve Smith banned from captaining any rep team until March 2020, and David Warner banned for life for any on-field executive position following the sandpapergate fracas in South Africa.
The two current ODI vice-captains, Pat Cummins and Alex Carey, aren’t ready to take over for a tournament as big as a World Cup.
The next best alternative is South Australian captain Travis Head, who has been pigeonholed as a Test batsman, and as a result was left out of the current tour of India.
Next in line would be Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja or Peter Handscomb, but seeing they were overlooked as vice-captains they must be discounted.
Glenn Maxwell has also been thrown up as a possible replacement, but it would take a major reversal in thinking to put the (c) after his name.
Maxwell is pigeonholed as a white-ball selection. He’s only played seven Tests, all away from home, and has yet to convince the panel he’s now a responsible batsman, as opposed to a talented loose-cannon.
The only other possibility is recalling keeper-batsman Tim Paine, but the Test captain is now regarded as purely a red-ball selection.
So Finch will lead the Australians into the World Cup, even though he’s suffering a major run drought.
In his last 19 visits to the crease, the first 11 netted 732 at 66.54, the last eight just 105 at 13.12.
Australian captain Aaron Finch is desperately out of form. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Another reason Finch is still there is D’Arcy Short is seen as an exclusive T20 batsman, so the chances of him playing ODIs are slim at best.
Which is farcical, as runs are selection currency, irrespective of format.
In the recent two T20 wins over India, for an Australian first time series success on those shores, Short was second only to Maxwell’s outstanding 169 for once out.
Short’s 37 and 40 were well ahead of Handscomb’s 13 and 20*, and thoroughly deserving of a start in the first ODI. But he was left out, because he’s a T20 batsman.
And let’s not forget Short was the BBL’s leading run-getter and player of the tournament, with 637 runs at 53.08, pipped only on averages by Marcus Stoinis’ 53.30.
So what if BBL matches have 20 overs and ODIs 50 – runs and confidence go hand in hand.
Turn the clock back to the late 1990s and the talented Michael Bevan being seen as purely an ODI player.
How could anyone averaging 53.58 with 196 visits to the ODI crease, average 57.32 in first-class batting from 400 digs, and average 57.86 in in 385 List A efforts, only play 18 Tests?
Bevan started 82, 0, 70, and 91 in his first four Tests, in India, and had to bat six or seven behind the likes of Mark Taylor, Michael Slater, Matt Hayden, David Boon, Greg Blewett, and a couple of Waughs. Yet he still averaged a handy 29.07.
Regarding Bevan as an ODI batsman suffocated his Test career, just as Maxwell’s Test career is being strangled.
Selection must be made on performance and predictability, which demands pigeonholing is banned.
But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.