Not selectable: Finn sent home and told to learn from Johnson
ENGLAND’S limited-overs cricket coach Ashley Giles has urged Steven Finn to draw inspiration from Australia’s Ashes hero Mitchell Johnson after sending the paceman home and branding him “not selectable”.
Finn, who has not played a competitive match on the tour Down Under, yesterday became the third player to leave the England squad prematurely during what has been a disastrous winter.
Giles said the 24-year-old was being released “for his own good” and “to work on technical aspects of his game”, despite four one-day and three Twenty20 matches remaining, having suffered an alarming slump in form.
Johnson recovered from a spell as a laughing stock to spearhead Australia’s 5-0 whitewash, and Giles believes Finn, the youngest Englishman to take 50 Test wickets, can eventually enjoy a similar revival.
“Mitch has done fantastically well. All credit to him how he has come back,” he said. “Steven Finn has similar capabilities. He’s worked incredibly hard, you can’t fault that. Sometimes you need to work smarter and that can involve taking him out of competitive cricket.”
Finn follows batsman Jonathan Trott, who suffered a stress-related illness, and spinner Graeme Swann, who retired from internationals, in leaving the current tour abruptly.
England hope to level the five-match series when they meet Australia in the second one-day game on Friday in Brisbane.