Australia limited-overs captain Aaron Finch is excited to play under the leadership of Virat Kohli at Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the upcoming edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), slated to commence from September 19 in UAE.
The Bangalore-based franchise paid a sum of INR 4.4 crore to acquire Finch, who has played for as many as eight different teams in his decade long IPL career.
In his recent interview with ANI, the Aussie remarked that he is looking forward to joining the team and heaped praises on Kohli’s competitive drive and spirit.
“I know how competitive and driven he is. I can’t wait to join up with RCB. To get the opportunity to play for a franchise that has some of the greatest players in the world is going to be fun. It would have been amazing to play in front of the home crowd at Chinnaswamy but representing the franchise in UAE will still mean a huge amount to me,” Finch told ANI.
“It will be my first time playing under Virat’s leadership but something I’m very excited about. Having played against him for a number of years now in international cricket and IPL I know how driven and competitive he is, that something I’m looking forward to seeing up close.”
Finch replaced Tim Paine as the ODI captain in 2018, at a time when Australian Cricket was still reeling from the shock of the ball-tampering scandal and even led the side in ICC World Cup 2019.
Talking about if his leadership skills will come handy for RCB, the 33-years-old stated: “I hope that my experience will come in handy, being able to help out anyone I can during the IPL. If that means I can help take some pressure off Virat then I will do everything I have to.”
The explosive right-handed batsman further lauded the consistency of his compatriot Steve Smith and Kohli in both home and away conditions.
“As for the best batsman in the world, you could throw a blanket over a handful of players over 3 formats. The consistency of Steve Smith and Virat Kohli in Test cricket both home and away over a long period of time probably makes them stand out from the rest,” said Finch.
