England v West Indies: Steven Finn desperate for second chance On paper, his form for Middlesex this season, 16 wickets in three championship matches, looks good but with Andrew Strauss, England's captain, playing alongside him in those games, you wonder if he saw something in the detail beyond the figures. Strauss does not have an official vote selecting the squad but he and Flower do have final say over the starting XI. "Maybe he saw something that wasn't quite right for Test cricket, which would be disappointing as I felt I was bowling all right," Finn conceded. I struggled for rhythm in my first match against Durham but I got better and took seven wickets in the match. It's the captain's prerogative - he and Flower pick the team and I just have to accept it. Lest this comes over as whinge - and let's face it, fast bowlers are famous for them - Finn, 23, is just being honest about his travails. As a protégé of Angus Fraser, the wonderfully irascible Middlesex and England bowler of the 1990s and now director of cricket at Middlesex, his aim will always be to bowl as straight as he speaks. You get the sense, then, that Finn is more than a little bewildered about his slip down the pecking order, especially after taking 53 wickets in 13 Tests. Rushed to his debut against Bangladesh in Chittagong two years ago (he arrived as back-up but played ahead of some of the initial picks), he became a regular until being unceremoniously dropped after the Perth Test 18 months ago, which England lost. His crime, despite taking five wickets, was to concede more than four runs an over. Since then, he has played two more Tests but only when others, mainly Broad, have been injured. Things were looking good. Taking 14 wickets in three Tests in Australia and then being left out was disappointing but I wasn't doing what the team wanted me to do, which was to go for fewer than three runs an over - that's what we set our stall out to do. While open to advice from others, his search for improvement has not taken him down the path of total compliance. At the moment, Finn uses quite a long run-up at the end of which he topples into his action without much of a gather. David Saker, the bowling coach, feels he might be more consistent if he shortened his run-up, but Finn, who still turns for advice to Fraser, who had an even longer run-up, disagrees. The run-up is something I've always done and it's only 13 running strides [one of his enormous strides being about 3½ yards long]. It's not hugely taxing and it gives me nice momentum into the crease. David is a fan of short run-ups but it's not something I'm entirely comfortable with working on just yet. So, how does he rate his chances of getting a game at Trent Bridge, especially after Tim Bresnan, his closest rival for a place, took one for 144 in the first Test, and after one commentator described the venue as likely to have more pace and bounce than Lord's? Obviously they didn't see the match I played in for Middlesex where the pitch was terribly slow and low. You want to get back in the team but you don't wish ill on anybody else because you want to win. Ultimately, we played some very good cricket at Lord's so logic says the side will stay the same. If I do get the opportunity though, hopefully I will take it. Investec, the specialist bank and asset manager, is title sponsor of Test match cricket. Visit investec.com/cricket zone