SYDNEY: Australian skipper Aaron Finch on Thursday said India have enough quality in their ODI squad to replace a great batsman like Rohit Sharma, who is back home nursing a hamstring injury.
Rohit, who suffered the injury during the IPL, is only expected to feature in the Test series starting December 17.
The in-form Mayank Agarwal is likely to open with Shikhar Dhawan in Rohit’s absence in the ODI series beginning Friday.
“He is obviously a great player and someone who has had quite a bit of success against us in the past. It (Rohit’s injury) is unfortunate,” Finch said in a virtual media interaction ahead of the series opener.
“You want to play against the best players all the time but whoever he is going to replace him, possibly Mayank, he has been in great form as well. So you take away a lot of experience but you also bring in another quality player.” Finch was Virat Kohli’s teammate at Royal Challengers Bangalore during the IPL and was asked if he noticed in weaknesses in India skipper’s game.
“He doesn’t have too many to be honest. If you look at his record it is second to none. We have to keep looking get him out. When you go away from that and look to contain players you can sort of miss a trick there,” Finch said.
“There are not too many chinks in his armour, he is probably the best one day player of all time.”
The Australian skipper, however, is very satisfied with the make up of his team despite the absence of injured all-rounder Mitchell Marsh.
Finch had the luxury of three all-rounders — Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis — in the last series they played in England. “I really like the balance of our side at the moment, don’t get me wrong…What Maxi has shown in T20 cricket in particular is that his bowling keeps improving all the time and Stoinis has proved that as well with the amount of exposure he has had over the past couple of years bowling in the death.”
Asked if the task getting the 10 overs from the two all-rounder would be tougher in Marsh’s absence, he said: “It is important and gives us a lot of flexibility.”
“In England, we had three all-rounder with Mitch, you can dissect the 10 overs a little bit easier but you are still expecting when the fifth bowler combination is bowling it will still have an impact on the game.
—PTI

Press Trust of India