Five bowlers who didn't do justice to their talent

3. Steven Finn

When a fast bowler is over six and a half feet tall and can bowl at over 150 kph, he ought to be a standout. And Steven Finn was just that for the first three years of his international career.

He bowled with an action that didn't seem to put too much load on his body and with his height and pace, he got the ball to bounce awkwardly off a length. Finn also managed to get some swing to supplement other qualities of his bowling.

He was extremely impressive in limited overs cricket during England's rise to the top spot of ODI rankings during the 2011-13 period and was pivotal to the team's achievement.

Finn's performance in Test arena wasn't as impressive, though he played a key role in England's victory over India in the Kolkata Test of 2012, which eventually resulted in England's win in he series.

But England, during that period, were obssessed with 'bowling dry' and during interviews, he repeatedly talked about trying to improve his economy rate. The apparent attempt to make him an economical bowler instead of using him as an out-and-out attacking option was surely confounding.

He also had a peculiar habit of hitting the stumps at the non-striker's end with his right knee in his run up, something that was a non-issue until Graeme Smith made an issue of during South Africa's England tour in 2012. This eventually led to ICC bringing in a new rule which mandated the umpire to call no-ball whenever the bowler knocked the bails off the stumps at the bowler's end in his run up. This further complicated matters as Finn had to remodel his run up.

The cumulative effect of all this was Finn losing his confidence and becoming a pale shadow of the bowler he originally was as he lost his place in the side. Considering his apparent lack of self-confidence, questions were asked as to whether he was being managed correctly by the then captain Alistair Cook and coach Andy Flower, who dubbed him 'unselectable' during the miserable Ashes series down under in 2013-14.

Finn did find his way back into the team and produced good results in 2015 Ashes at home and did well subsequently in South Africa as well. But he now lacks the venom his bowling had in the early years and is currently struggling to get back into the Test side.