Opener Aaron Finch knows he's the one Australian batsman struggling for runs ahead of Thursday's World Cup semi-final against India but, ever confident, thinks a big innings is just around the corner.
Finch opened his campaign with a pugnacious 135 against England but has struggled since, contributing just 54 runs in his last five innings as co-hosts Australia charged into the last four of the tournament.
Former skipper Ricky Ponting said this week Finch's technical flaws were exposed when he was struggling for runs and the 28-year-old has been working with former Test all-rounder Andrew McDonald in addition to the Australian coaching team.
"It's nothing that I'm overly concerned about, it's just going back to look at the basics of my technique, something that I fall back on when I'm not getting a whole lot of runs," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"Whenever you don't get runs, it starts to build up," he added.
"Whatever happens on Thursday will happen, I'm not one who over-analyses it too much.
"When you look down the batting list, everyone's been playing perfectly and I'm probably the only one who's missed out in the last couple of games.
"I'm confident going into this game, I've got no reason not to be. I'm hitting the ball nicely and I'm looking for big runs."
The aggressive right-hander is almost certain to retain his place in the side despite his paucity of runs, barring a shock move for Shane Watson back up the order to open with David Warner.
Given that Watson has just shaken off his own run of poor form batting at number six, however, that looks highly unlikely and the Australia team should be unchanged -- give or take the inclusion of specialist spinner Xavier Doherty.
Although Finch does not want to over-analyse his form, he has clearly given plenty of thought to how a turnaround in fortunes might come about on Thursday.
"You try and hit a couple at the start of the innings to get a roll on," he said.
"(But) when you're not hitting them that well, you get down the other end and hand it over to Davy (Warner) to take some of the strike.
"Just try and work your way into an innings in a different way rather as opposed to boundaries and trying to score quickly.
"It's just one of those things, it's not far away, I feel great, it might be just that one shot early in the innings to get you going to make a big one."
Refusing to put any added emphasis on India’s in-form pace bowling department, Finch exuded confidence of successfully tackling the Indian pace attack come the semi-finals on Thursday.
India's pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma and Umesh Yadav have taken 42 out of the 70 wickets amongst themselves and can cause a potential threat to the home team.
"They've been bowling well. Shami is up there with the leading wicket-takers of the tournament -- Yadav, Mohit Sharma, they’ve been bowling well as a group. With our side, we are confident that we can negate that," Finch said.
He admitted that India have some quality spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja but they would have their game-plan in place to counter them.
"Wickets are generally pretty true here. Whatever happens, I suppose, if we stick to our game plans and play well it goes a long way towards winning the game. It's about being aggressive without being over the top."
Asked if there will be any special plans in store for Ashwin, Finch replied, "Not yet. We will sit down as a batting group this afternoon and talk about their bowlers with a bit more depth. Ashwin's a quality bowler. As long as you have your own individual plans, it’s important to stick to them. He’s bowled well throughout the tournament. He’s bowled in some difficult phases of the game and done well."
He did admit that staying in Australia for four and half months have enabled the Indian bowlers to figure out the right length that they needed to hit.
"India's plan doesn't look to have changed too much. I suppose they've just spent a lot more time in the country. When you're looking to be aggressive with the new ball, having been here for four and a half months, they have probably adapted their lengths a little bit.
"They’ve got skillful bowlers. Shami is bowling well. He’s swinging the ball which is a huge factor I suppose for them at the start of the innings. There’s no rocket science -- they’re bowling well, they're batting well. They’re going to be tough to beat."
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The Indian batsmen have accelerated well in most of the matches in the last 15 overs and Finch attributes it to at least one among the top-order scoring consistently.
"They've had one top-order batsman batting deep in the innings. Rohit Sharma batted deep in the last game. That makes a huge difference because you’ve never got two new batsmen at the crease.
"That’s the important thing for all teams, not just India. Our job is to take early wickets and put as much pressure on them as we can," Finch said.
