He had just scored 172 runs in 76 balls, with 19 fours and 10 sixes, against Zimbabwe in an exhibition of brutal hitting of the sort rarely seen before. In fact, that many runs have never been scored by an individual in T20I cricket in the past. The only one to ever come close was Finch himself, when he hit 156 against England in Southampton in 2013.

Finch now has 4891 runs in 132 international games, more than the 4763 William Porterfield had to his name before he made his Test debut earlier this year.

“I’ve got myself to blame for that,” Finch said of failing to ever make the grade in five-day cricket. “When I was younger, I had an opportunity to really push my case for a few years. I had probably 18 to 24 months of really lean four-day or any red-ball cricket, to be honest.

“I was playing good white-ball cricket for Australia and couldn’t get the runs on the board in red-ball cricket.”

But, at 31, there’s still a chance, especially with Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft out of the picture for the immediate future.

“I’ve started to build up my red-ball game again and I feel a lot more comfortable now,” he said. “I’ve started to play my natural game, ultra-aggressive whether I’m playing in Australia or England.”