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David Warner declared he'd never seen Aaron Finch bat better after Australia's record win over India, and it's a far cry from where the captain was a year ago.
Aaron Finch has gone from under the pump to one half of the world's best opening partnership in one-day cricket in the space of a year.
Finch's unbeaten 110 in Tuesday night's 10-wicket flogging of India marked his fifth century in 10 months at the top of the Australian order.
Crucially though, it was his 248-run stand with David Warner that was just as impressive, as it broke the record for the highest unbeaten Australian partnership in history.
The backbone of Australia's World Cup assault last year, Warner and Finch have now scored 924 runs batting together since Warner's return from his ban.
The pair's average of 92.40 together is also the best of any opening combination over the past year, just eclipsing Indian rivals KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma.
It's a far cry from Finch's state early last year, where he was out of form and questions were even asked of if he would be squeezed out of the top order had he not been captain.
"We know each other's games so well and personalities that now we can have honest conversations out there," Warner said.
"It's just great to go out there and play the way that we do, when he's going I know what my role is.
"And when I'm going he knows what he's role is and we communicate that straight away and I think that's the best thing about our partnership,
"It works very well. It's great and I absolutely love it and he loves it and hopefully we can keep looking forward to that next World Cup (in 2023)."
Finch's knock against India in Tuesday night's win was as good as any of his career, and is an ominous sign for the hosts ahead of Friday's second game in Rajkot.
He looked on from ball one, and played with complete freedom through the offside as punished anything that offered enough width.
It even prompted Warner to claim it was the best he had ever seen his long-time partner bat.
"The most pleasing thing for me up the other end was seeing Finchy transfer his weight into the ball very well," Warner said.
"He talks about not doing that as consistent, but that was probably the best that I've ever seen him bat."
