World T20 omission frustrated Finn

LONDON: Steven Finn has admitted he was frustrated by England’s decision not to take him to India as part of the World T20 squad, insisting he would have been fully fit for the tournament.

Finn, who was replaced in the squad by Liam Plunkett after suffering a calf injury, assured the England management that he would be fit and subsequently played a full part on Middlesex’s pre-season tour.

While he celebrated England’s relative success in the tournament, joking that they would have been “knocked out in the group stages if I’d been there”, he felt the latest in a succession of injuries robbed him of “a big winter”.

“It’s frustrating,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “I would have been fit. I told them I would be fit.

“There wasn’t actually much wrong with me. I was back up and running within a week of the calf injury but the decision was made quite quickly to pull me out of the squad. There were still 10 days before the squad left to go for India and I was pretty much bowling 100% by the time the guys started the World Cup.

“They played fantastically and got better as the tournament went on. I was frustrated not to be out there with them, but you get over that and accept the decision is made.”

The calf injury was the latest in a series of setbacks that have interrupted Finn’s progress since his return to the Test team during the 2015 summer. A foot injury kept him out of the Test series in the UAE, while a side strain ended his tour to South Africa. In between times, he cut his head on a street sign while looking at his phone while walking.

“Injuries at this stage of my career, when it looked like I could have had a big winter, are frustrating,” he said.

“But I’ve taken solace in the fact that when I’ve come back I’ve bowled well straight away. In the past it has taken a while.”

Middlesex’s Championship season starts at Lord’s on Sunday with a game against Warwickshire. Finn knows that his performances in the opening games will determine whether he wins selection for the Test series against Sri Lanka and hopes that the newly developed ability to swing the ball — evident during the 2015 Ashes series — will give him an edge.

“I feel I’ve something to offer in all three formats,” Finn said. “But Test cricket is what I desperately, desperately want to play.”