Finch’s position had been in jeopardy since Australia’s exit from the home T20 World Cup last year, when he was a destructive opening batter.
The Victoria-born batter, who has captained the team in 76 of the 103 T20 matches he has played since making his debut against England in 2011, was not immediately clear who would take his place.
He told reporters at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, “Realizing that I won’t be playing on until the next T20 World Cup in 2024, now is the right moment to step down and give the team time to plan and build towards that event.”
“It has been an incredible honor to be able to play with and against some of the greatest players of all time while representing Australia for 12 years.”
In 2018, he was named the best T20 batter in the world. In 2021, he captained Australia to their first T20 World Cup victory in Dubai.
In T20 internationals, only five players have scored more runs than Finch.
In September of last year, fast bowler Pat Cummins, 29, took over as Australia’s one-day captain.
Even though Cummins is in charge of Australia’s Test team, selectors might be reluctant to give him the T20 captaincy.
According to Finch, the two cricket memories he would “cherish the most” are winning the 2015 ODI and T20 World Cups.
He holds the record for the highest score in a Twenty20 international match, scoring 172 runs off 76 balls in a 2018 match against Zimbabwe.
He also scored 156 against England in 2013—the third-highest T20 international score.
Lachlan Henderson, chairman of Cricket Australia and one of Australia’s “greats,” referred to Finch as one of the country’s “finest white-ball players.”
Henderson stated, “Aaron was a tough competitor on the field, but he always played the game with a smile and in the right spirit.”
Aaron will always hold a special place in the history of Australian cricket because he was one of only four men’s players to lead Australia to a World Cup victory.
He was referred to as a “great of Australian cricket” by his club, the Melbourne Renegades.
Finch was successful in limited-overs formats, scoring 5,406 ODI runs and 3,120 in T20 internationals, but he was ineffective in Tests.
He represented Australia in five Test matches in 2018, but he was dropped because he failed to impress the coaches.
Finch is likely to continue playing T20 cricket in the domestic league of Australia.