England quick Steven Finn becomes talking point as lack of form puts place under pressure for home Test at Lord's
Finn under scrutiny despite team success
Sometimes a winning team can be the hardest place to be for a sportsman struggling for form. With the majority of your colleagues performing well, the focus falls not on any collective failure but that of the individuals who are being carried along for the ride. The passengers.
Just ask England batsman Nick Compton, under pressure before the series against Sri Lanka began and now facing the drop after two failures so far in the opening two Tests.
Compton, of course, is old news at the minute. Now, it is Steven Finn, his Middlesex and England team-mate, who is drawing the critics’ fire.
Finn appeared to be a convenient scapegoat when England failed to press home their advantage and wrap-up victory inside three days at Durham.
England, of course, will come back on day four, when they look certain to secure a win that will seal the series with a game to spare.
That final match will take place at Lord’s next week. Whether Finn will be in England’s starting XI on his home ground is apparently now a genuine talking point.
The 27-year-old fast bowler has looked out of rhythm and down on pace during the first two Tests of this series. At Durham, where he has just one wicket so far, he was the weak link in an attack that had got used to blowing away Sri Lanka.
Scores of 91, 119 and 101 from the tourists raised expectations that, just as they did in the first Test at Leeds, Alastair Cook’s side would canter to an innings win inside three days.
Sport isn’t always so simple, though, and fighting half-centuries from captain Angelo Mathews, Kaushal Silva and Dinesh Chandimal held up England’s victory charge and leaves them needing to pick up five more Sri Lankan wickets to seal the deal.
Finn’s form, or lack of it, is relative. His pace is no doubt down on the last northern summer, when he returned to England’s side in spectacular fashion with an eight-wicket match haul in the crucial Ashes win against Australia at Edgbaston.
That was the Watford-born bowler’s first Test appearance since he had been sent home early from England’s horrific 2013-14 Ashes tour after losing his action and being branded “unselectable” by then one-day coach Ashley Giles.
After last year’s Ashes comeback good performances followed from Finn in South Africa, a tour that also ended prematurely for him but this time through injury.
However, Finn has struggled to regain his mojo on his return to fitness and was honest enough to admit as much when he spoke at the close of day three here in Durham.
"I came out after tea to get in a more of a fight with the batman and try and have more intent on a wicket where it was doing nothing from a fuller length," said Finn.
"I was just trying to run in as hard as I could. It is no secret I’ve been searching for rhythm this summer and in this series. It’s been there in patches.
"I feel as though it is getting there and spells like that, when you smash the deck, help with your rhythm because you are not thinking about yourself, just what is happening at the other end.
"It’s just about trying to find more consistency. My body is fine, I'm just trying to get in a battle and take wickets for England."
Finn’s post-tea spell at Durham was his best of the series so far – 1-13 from six overs.
Yet he is being compared to James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who have 24 wickets between them so far. Chris Woakes, too, has impressed on his return to the side, following up a career-best haul of 3-9 in Sri Lanka’s first innings with the first wicket –of Dimuth Karunaratne – in the second.
Jake Ball, the highly-rated Nottinghamshire quick who has been compared to his county team-mate Broad, is patiently waiting for his chance after being named in the squads for the first two Tests against Sri Lanka.
Ball could, if the series was already decided, make his debut at Lord’s. Yet it would be foolish for England to drop Finn on his home ground, especially when he is a player who responds to having faith placed in him rather than threats.
With Mark Wood returning to bowling this week following a long injury lay-off and Ben Stokes also set to return for the second series of the northern summer against Pakistan, England’s bowling stocks will soon be back at full strength.
When that time comes, Finn might be justified in fearing for his place. However, for now he deserves a chance to rediscover his rhythm and radar because on his day he can be one hell of a bowler.