New one-day captain Aaron Finch is the ideal man to lead Australia in playing the fearless cricket they need to if they are to compete with the best teams in the world, according to paceman Pat Cummins.

Cummins was named in a 14-man squad to take on South Africa in the three-match Gillette ODI Series next month, with Finch replacing Tim Paine as captain.

Finch has led his country on 20 occasions – twice in one-dayers and 18 times in 20-over cricket – and is Australia's highest-ranked ODI batsman currently available for selection at 15th (suspended batsman David Warner is the top-ranked Australian in fourth spot).

Having played under Finch's captaincy in limited-overs cricket, Cummins says the Victorian's relaxed nature as a leader and aggressive attitude with the bat makes him the ideal choice as Paine's successor.

"He's perfect for the job," Cummins told reporters in Sydney today.

"You see how he bats, he's quite fearless, he takes the game on.

"I think the trend in one-day cricket at the moment is you've got to be totally fearless, take the game on, relax.

"You might get smashed sometimes going for the 350-400 score but that's the way it's played.

"Hopefully he brings that to the team and has his own little spin on the team like any captain does.

"He's someone who's played a lot, knows the game really well and is a really good communicator. I'm sure he'll be great in the role."

Less than a year out from the World Cup in England, Cummins says Australia's campaign for their title defence starts with the Proteas on November 4 in Perth.

Australia were whitewashed 0-5 in England in June, but that squad was without six first-choice players, including Cummins, which resulted in the team slipping to sixth place on the ODI rankings, their lowest position since 1984.

While Australia's form line in ODI cricket makes for ugly reading – they've lost 16 of their past 18 matches – Cummins says a squad brimming with match-winners is "not far at all" from challenging the best ODI teams in the world.

"I think you see in this team … Finch is one of the most in-form batsmen in the world at the moment for one-day cricket," Cummins said.

"You've got people like (Glenn) Maxwell, (Chris) Lynn, guys that can change the game in 10 overs.

"Mitchell Starc was the best player in the last World Cup and Josh Hazlewood has been No.1 (ODI bowler) in the world.

"We've got some real match-winners in the team, so all it takes is one or two of them to come off and the rest of us to be pretty consistent and we should go far."