Aaron Finch will back his imposing international record as he strives to regain his spot at the top of the Australian batting order for the T20 World Cup in India.
Now fully recovered from the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the final home T20 international against India last month and three ODIs away to New Zealand, Finch will rejoin the squad for next month's short T20 tour of South Africa.
Having been overlooked as skipper in favour of Steve Smith, Finch is now involved in a three-way tussle with Usman Khawaja and Shane Watson to open alongside David Warner at the global tournament beginning in India in mid-March.
"Obviously I've performed well in Twenty20 cricket for a while now for Australia," 29-year-old Finch said on Tuesday.
"Whenever guys are in great form, and definitely Usman and Watto and Davey have been in great form as well, there's always going to be that pressure regardless of who it is, regardless of how many runs they have scored.
"It's just a case of putting another case forward and whichever way they do go at the start of the series, I'm sure there will be challengers breathing down their neck."
Finch has the best T20 international batting record of the quartet and is also a proven performer in the Indian Premier League.
There is also the prospect of slotting Finch, Watson or Khawaja into the middle order in the T20 World Cup.
"That doesn't bother me one bit to be honest," he said.
"I'll bat wherever I have to.
"It just means you can go out there and try and hit them over the rope a bit earlier which is a nice touch.
"It would obviously be a different role if I was put in to that but the principles of batting are still the same.
"We know we're going to face a lot of spin through the middle overs, particularly in India, so we'll just have to cross that bridge when it comes, if it comes."
Finch admitted he was surprised and disappointed to have been dumped as Australian T20 skipper.
"I was really looking forward to leading Australia into a world tournament," he said.
"I was disappointed but I understand the way the selectors have decided to go.
"Steve is obviously captain of the other two formats, he's a fantastic captain and I'm sure he will do very well."
T20 INTERNATIONAL RECORDS OF AUSTRALIA'S PROSPECTIVE OPENERS
Aaron Finch: 24 matches, 874 runs, average of 41.61, strike rater of 151.47
David Warner: 54 matches, 1465 runs, average of 28.72, strike rate of 138.86
Shane Watson: 52 matches, 1315 runs, average of 28.58, strike rate of 146.11
Usman Khawaja: one match, 14 runs, average of 14, strike rate of 233.30
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