Finn’s High Hopes for the Future

When the 2009 LV County Championship season started, English fans could have been forgiven for not knowing the name Steven Finn. The tall, aggressive fast bowler was working hard on trying to impress the Middlesex director of cricket, Angus Fraser and secure a regular place in the first team. Fast forward twelve months and Finn is now an important member of the Middlesex attack with two test appearances to his name.

It has been a meteoric rise for the quick bowler who has only just turned 21 years of age and has already been compared to Steve Harmison and Glenn McGrath. Finn’s hit the deck style of bowling produces steep bounce while his control allows him to build pressure on batsman. Standing at 6’8” he is an intimidating figure that bounds into the crease at full tilt. In other words, he is a batsman’s worst nightmare.

His England call-up may have come as a surprise, he was originally part of the England Lions squad, but Finn took it all in his rather lengthy stride. “It was a great honour to get the nod to play in Bangladesh. I was a bit nervous but I dealt with it and managed to finish with decent figures. I don’t think I did myself an injustice,” explains Finn rather modestly. “The surface wasn’t fantastic for someone like me as it was very slow and not very conducive to fast bowling but, you have to make do and try and perform for the team.”

The dry pitches in Bangladesh may have been better suited to the spin of Graeme Swann but it was a good learning process for the relatively inexperienced bowler. In the two tests, Finn picked up four wickets and further impressed the England management team who see him as a different option to the current crop of quick bowlers.

Although he was not named in the 15 man squad for the ICC World Twenty20 he realises that if he continues to impress for Middlesex then he will be hard to ignore. “It was great to get the recognition and play for England as it’s something that I have dreamed of since I was a kid. Obviously after a taste of international cricket you want to play more so not getting picked for the World Twenty20 was disappointing but I’m not going to tear my hair out about it,” explains Finn. “All I can do is put performances in for Middlesex and take as many wickets as possible. If I can do that then hopefully I will impress the right people.”

In Middlesex’s first county championship game of 2010, Finn showed the selectors that he is capable of bowling long spells and taking regular wickets. Facing Worcestershire at New Road in the season opener he claimed a five wicket haul in the first innings and was even more impressive in the second as he took nine wickets in a 15 over spell which could not prevent Middlesex from defeat.�

Importantly for Finn the person he most needs to impress over the coming months was watching intently from his fielding position at slip. The England captain, Andrew Strauss, took three catches off the bowling of Finn and saw first hand just how devastating his pace and precision can be.

It is this type of bowling which would seemingly suit the hard, bouncy pitches in Australia. So could the young seamer from Watford be selected for the Ashes series? “I have never played there [Australia] and I haven’t really observed much cricket out there either so I have no idea what the wickets are like. I think it’s important that I don’t look that far ahead. I just want to take wickets for Middlesex and see where that gets me.”

Although Finn is playing down the prospect of appearing in one of the most important series in world cricket, if he can continue to take wickets then the selectors will find it very hard to ignore this giant of a man.