Aaron Finch names the toughest bowler he has faced in his career

Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch is considered one of the most destructive openers in the cricketing world. When on song, he can dispatch the best bowlers out of the park. His lethal opening combination at the top with David Warner has seen Australia rake up huge totals in 50-over and 20-over formats.

Since making his debut in 2011, the hard-hitting right-hand batter has scored over 7000 runs for the Men in Yellow across formats. He has also turned out to be an aggressive leader taking Australia to the semi-finals of the ICC 2019 Cricket World Cup. He was last seen in action during India’s tour of Australia in the limited-overs format.

Of late, Finch is making most of the time with his family and unwinding himself ahead of the grueling schedule ahead. He hosted a Question/Answers session on Instagram where a fan asked him a good question, ‘who was the toughest bowler you ever faced in your career.’

Finch’s response was Saeed Ajmal, Pakistan’s mystery spinner, who troubled a lot of batters with his unique action. During his peak, the off-spinner also for a brief while, was top of the rankings in the white-ball formats. Ajmal ended up playing 35 Tests, 113 ODIs, and 64 T20Is for Pakistan during 2008 and 2015.

Saeed Ajmal troubled several top players apart from Aaron Finch

Finch’s answer might not have surprised the fans and experts because Ajmal was really tough to pick due to smart variations. The Australian captain is not alone as Faf du Plessis, Kumar Sangakkara and England’s Test captain Joe Root too found the going tough against the Pakistani spinner as they had admitted in several interviews.

After quitting all formats of cricket, Ajmal gives views and feedback regarding Pakistan cricket on various platforms. Recently, he was disappointed and slammed critics for dropping Yasir Shah, who was Pakistan’s lead spinner for close to three years. Ajmal feels a slight dip in form should be overlooked as Shah has done well for the team and he deserves his spot.

Pakistani players will now feature in the sixth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and then travel for a limited-overs series in England starting in July. Meanwhile, Finch-led Australia will take on West Indies in a five-match T20I series starting on July 10.