Aaron Finch 'not a big fan' of non-striker run-outs after apparent warning from Mitchell Starc to Jos Buttler

Aaron Finch stopped short of confirming if he would endorse one of his bowlers running out a batter backing up, after Mitchell Starc appeared to warn Jos Buttler during the rain-interrupted third T20I in Canberra.

After sending down the fourth ball of the over to Dawid Malan, which was jabbed back towards him, Starc turned and pointed at Buttler and the crease.

He appeared to say something to Buttler which was not audible, but the stump mic did pick up Buttler saying, "don't think I was".

Screenshots posted on social media of the delivery in question suggested Buttler was just out of his ground before the ball was released and, after Starc's words, he was clearly in his crease.

Finch said he had not seen the moment occur in the middle but that a first warning was probably the way to go, although he was not broadly in favour of the mode of dismissal.

"I wasn't aware, had no idea about that," he said. "I think if batters get a warning then it's fair game after that. That would go for most teams, I assume, if you give the batter a warning that they are getting a little too much ground before the ball is bowled. But I'm not a big fan of it, to be fair, personally."

Asked if he would be comfortable with a bowler completing a run out, Finch said: "Great question..."

England allrounder Chris Woakes expressed a similar view on the use of a warning. "In my eyes that's the best way to go about," he said. "I've got no issue with warning guys. I personally wouldn't run someone out [like that] but a warning, no issue with that."

Buttler has twice been run-out backing up. The first occasion was in an ODI against Sri Lanka in 2014 after two warnings from Sachithra Senanayake and again in the 2019 IPL when R Ashwin was the bowler.

Recently, after the mode of dismissal returned to the headlines when Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean at Lord's, Buttler said he would recall a batter in such a situation, even in a World Cup final.

"No, I am calling the batsman back," he said. "No one wants to see them in the game because they always create such a talking point when it should be about the battle between bat and ball and watching great games of cricket. They always seem to happen at unsavoury times."

The MCC has moved to destigmatise the dismissal by moving it from "unfair play" to "run out" in the Laws.

Earlier in the series, Buttler was involved in another debate over a manner of dismissal when he opted not to appeal for "obstructed the field" against Matthew Wade in Perth when it looked clear that Mark Wood had been impeded as he attempted to reach a caught-and-bowled opportunity in his followthrough.

On that occasion, Buttler later admitted he would probably have taken a different approach in a match of more significance.