Anyone who does not know Steven Finn’s backstory has probably been living under a rock but now he wants to put the past behind him and become the fast bowler England craves
David Hopps04-Aug-2015″To be quite frank I am sick of talking about the past,” said Steven Finn. It sounded like a watershed. No more will he feel obliged to reflect upon that calamitous last Ashes tour, of the reasons his bowling action malfunctioned, about his kneeing of the stumps, the yips that weren’t really yips, the shortened run-up and “unselectable” comment by Ashley Giles that was delivered more sympathetically than some have supposed, and the long road back to fulfilment.You know the story. Bookmark it. If things go to plan, you may never read it again.As fast bowlers go, though, Finn is a courteous chap. He was 6 minutes 57 seconds into revisiting the past before he dared to draw the line. He makes a gory story sound anodyne. Move on, Steven, you could have been forgiven for pleading. There is no point to this anymore. Especially when you tell it like you just popped down to the shop for a pint of milk. At least invent something implausible like your body was briefly inhabited by Martians. Draw your lesson from Australia: you can always rely on Mitchell Johnson to say something like that.And then Finn put the past behind him, which is where the past most properly belongs. “That has been and gone,” he said. “Every time I have sat down I have talked about what has happened in the past. ‘How did you do this, how did you do that?’ Like that is not even in my head any more. All I am thinking about is what is happening in the future and trying to keep that going; that’s the only thing that is occupying my mind at the moment.”So the past is cancelled. Apart, that is, from the memory of Edgbaston, when he felt 6ft 7ins again, when he was roared so loudly into the crease on a hat-trick ball to Mitchell Marsh that he might almost have soared over the batsman’s head to the sightscreen with the thrill of it all, and when his best Test return of 6 for 79 (8 for 117 in the match) dismissed Australia for a second time and forced home the victory that put England 2-1 ahead in the series.’I don’t want to talk myself up too much because it could bite me in the backside but my rhythm felt good and it still feels good and hopefully I can take that into this Test match’•Getty ImagesEdgbaston is different. Edgbaston is a piece of the past that counts as the future. Funny thing, time, as Stephen Hawking almost said. One minute, Finn is in danger of disappearing into his own self-analytical black hole, the next minute he once again looks as if he can be English cricket’s Big Bang – the fast bowler, at 26, who can still have his best years in front of him, an exciting champion of the attack, awarded the new ball without a second thought. He might get it temporarily – he has done it a couple of times before in Tests – at Trent Bridge.The prospect of the new ball excites him.”That’s a massive ambition of mine,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to be a dead cert in an England team. My driving ambition has been to get to that place. At the moment I’m very much a support player I suppose, but over time, as guys phase out of the team, it will be a matter of trying to take that extra responsibility when it comes.”Edgbaston was not a flash in the pan. He asserted that more than once. Then, as if it sounded overly confident, he also reminded himself: “It’s only one Test match.” With Finn, you sense that to land in a psychologically good place remains an intricate business, needing pilot and co-pilot at the controls and the latest in technology to alleviate the crosswinds. Overload Edgbaston with too much significance and things could get bumpy.”I’m not looking too far in the future, just build on my performance last week and keep building so it comes to a stage where you are a name on a team sheet rather than a bloke with a question mark against you.”That is just the sort of optimistic thought England need when the absence of James Anderson because of injury – on the ground, too, where he has been so destructive – is a reminder of his advancing years, and where his preferred replacement, Mark Wood, is not certain to return because of the ankle trouble that ruled him out at Edgbaston. Wood is a bowler of talent and he might own an imaginary horse but he has never been a jockey resilient enough to go through the card.”Obviously, we are missing Jimmy this game so there’s more responsibility,” Finn said. “We’re all as a bowling unit going to have to step up because he will be sorely missed to try to limit the effect of missing Jimmy and that’s everyone’s responsibility in the attack, not just mine.”He jokes: “I’ve nicked his place in the dressing room so there’s a bit of pressure on me to take the wickets he’s taken.”Before Edgbaston, Finn was approaching 100 Test wickets with a reputation as a fast bowler who leaked runs. Perceptions can quickly change. If he achieves that landmark at Trent Bridge – he needs two – he could be extolled for having a strike rate that bears comparison with the best of them. Finn is a bowler who makes things happen in an England side that dares to play fast and loose and shares his unpredictability.”The strike rate is a nice thing to have by your name I suppose,” he said, “but I would like to get that run rate down if I’m being really honest. I’ve got below three an over for Middlesex this season. I have been a little bit expensive in the past but I was inexperienced then as well and a combination of the two would be lovely but at the moment it encourages you to go out and try to get wickets I suppose.”I don’t want to talk myself up too much because it could bite me in the backside but my rhythm felt good and it still feels good and hopefully I can take that into this Test match. I have felt in good rhythm all summer.”Rhythm is important to every bowler, but it has been a less trusty companion to Finn than some. The way he fibs about his height is instructional. At 6ft 7ins, he feels normal. At his real height – 6ft 8ins – he feels gangly, unreliable, unrhythmic. Knocking an inch off brings his body back under mental control.Neither is there much sign of a fast bowler’s malevolence to sustain him. “I like my skills to do the talking, I try to play with a smile on my face. There is a time to impose yourself but I try to let my bowling do the imposing and not necessarily scowling. That’s just something you learn when you are younger – you learn a style that brings the best out of you.”Invited to recall a time when he did something really nasty, he exclaimed “bloody hell” and proposed “I pulled a spider’s legs off when I was younger?”At his worst in Australia, life must have felt like that for Finn, except he was the spider whose legs were being yanked in all directions.Days no longer lingered upon. Not now. Maybe not ever.
