Finch, who managed 0 and 11 in the 31-run defeat, made his Test debut only recently during the two-match series against Pakistan in the UAE and has played only three games. However, with a top score of 41 in his last 10 international outings, questions have been raised on his place in the side.

Paine, however, brushed the speculation aside. “We encourage all our players to back their strengths,” he said.

"We certainly get more excited than nervous looking at lively pitches now. We saw the pitch and we were happy to see the grass on it."https://t.co/SqESVGkAYd

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) December 13, 2018

“Finchy has been successful at international cricket and he played really well in the UAE, and he just needs that one score to get that little bit more self belief at Test level.

”In the first innings, he didn’t get in and Uz (Usman Khawaja) took a great catch, but in the second innings we were pleased that we made him face over 100 balls to score 30 runs, and I don’t think he does that a lot.

“And out of those 30 runs I think six or seven came off Travis Head, who bowled a few overs. That’s something we want to continue to do. We know at some stage he is going to score runs but we want to make him work really hard for every run he scores.”