Aaron Finch admits he's haunted daily by Australia's semi-final defeat at last year's ICC World Cup, and has identified prematurely peaking as a pitfall his team must avoid if they are to progress further in the upcoming T20 global showpiece.

Finch was last night crowned men's ODI Player of the Year at the Australian Cricket Awards, having finished the 12-month voting period as leading runs scorer in the 50-over format.

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However, a bulk of the white-ball captain's 1141 runs (at an average of 51.86) came during a purple patch during warm-up matches in the months prior to the World Cup beginning, and in the opening stages of the quadrennial tournament held in the UK.

In the course of 15 ODIs up to the final fortnight of the World Cup, Finch blazed 1067 runs at a remarkable average of 76.21 before scoring just 11 (average 3.67) in Australia's final pair of group games and the semi-final which they lost to eventual champions, England.

His lack of productivity at the pointy end of the tournament reflected that of his team, which lost its final two games having won all-but one of the preceding 15 matches where Finch and his opening partner David Warner had dominated.

After accepting his award last night, the first time he has been recognised as the nation's pre-eminent men's ODI player, the 33-year-old conceded he continues to endure nightmares about the loss to England at Edgbaston last July which ended Australia's World Cup defence.

"It hurts every day," Finch said of the ODI World Cup memories.

"You think about it, and it's something you look back on and it runs through your head what you could have done differently that day to change the result.

"I know you move on after a while – but I haven't yet."

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As a result, he believes the men's T20 outfit – which he also captains – must be wary about reaching the peak of their playing potential too early in the ICC T20 World Cup tournament that begins in Australia in October this year.

The T20 World Cup is the only major perennial cricket trophy Australia's men's team has yet to win, and Finch knows there is a decided advantage in hosting the tournament on home soil for the first time provided his squad can properly pace their run to the decider at the MCG on November 15.

"Potentially we peaked a little bit early in the 50-over World Cup," Finch said.

"It was such a long build-up, with a lot of warm-up games and the training camp beforehand so maybe we were just on the down, and just flagging towards the end of the tournament.

'We played really good cricket at the start and not our best towards the end.

"So I think that's something in a World Cup, you have to peak at the right time regardless of whether that's 100 per cent or 90 per cent, you have to be tracking in the right direction at the end of the tournament.

"That's something that we'll work on no doubt."

Male ODI Player of the Year 2020: Aaron Finch

As the men's team steps up their preparation for the seventh T20 World Cup, which has yielded five different winning nations since it was first staged in 2007, Finch will lead a 14-man squad on the Qantas of South Africa later this week for a series of 20-over and 50-over matches.

He said the growing presence of T20 international fixtures in the schedule – Australia have played 16 in the past 15 months – as well as the elevation of former national T20 skipper George Bailey to the selection panel should improve his team's chances of lifting the trophy for the first time later this year.

"His thinking behind a lot of stuff has been excellent so far, and he'll be a great addition," Finch said of Bailey, who retired from competitive cricket when Hobart Hurricanes bowed out of the KFC Big Bash League finals race last month.

"I think being a current player, at times you look at things differently and you judge people on different things rather than simply runs and wickets, and catches and stumpings.

"I think over the last couple of years it (T20 at international level) has taken a bit more of a significance.

"The fact that we have more internationals now is important.

"In the past, if you just got one game at the end of a (ODI) series or every two series, it didn't have much of a meaning.

"So you could just throw together a team, and hope for the best.

"But the fact that we've played more over the past 12 months means we're preparing long-term for it, so that's a good thing."

While Australia have reached the final of just one of the previous six T20 World Cups contested to date, Finch believes the continued growth of the domestic BBL competition means there is a greater depth of 20-over players than ever before.

And he does not expect the new-look selection panel of Bailey, men's team coach Justin Langer and chair Trevor Hohns will be tempted to look for 'wildcard' players who bring a unique or unpredictable skills-set in the hope they unsettle opposing teams' strategies.

"We haven't got too innovative at all," Finch said of the 14-man squad chosen to contest the three T20I matches in South Africa from February 21 that precede the ODI fixtures.

"If you look at our squad selections over the last couple of months, it's all been pretty consistent.

"There hasn't been a huge amount of risk-taking in our selections, so we've got confidence in the 14 guys in South Africa that potentially they can take us forward to the T20 World Cup."

Australia's Qantas Tour of South Africa 2020

Australia T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Australia ODI squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey (vc), Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

First T20: February 21 at Johannesburg. 3am AEDT (Feb 22), Fox Cricket & Kayo

Second T20: February 23 at Port Elizabeth 11.30pm AEDT, Fox Cricket & Kayo

Third T20: February 26 at Cape Town. 3am AEDT (Feb 27), Fox Cricket & Kayo

First ODI: February 29 at Paarl (D/N). 10pm AEDT, Fox Cricket & Kayo

Second ODI: March 4 at Bloemfontein (D/N). 10pm AEDT, Fox Cricket & Kayo

Third ODI: March 7 at Potchefstroom. 7pm AEDT, Fox Cricket & Kayo