England have named uncapped spin pair Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir in their squad; You can follow England's five-Test series across Sky Sports' digital platforms with live blogs and reports.
Wednesday 17 January 2024 22:53, UK
Steven Finn believes England's tour of India will be their toughest challenge yet and remains adamant "superhuman" James Anderson has still got plenty to give.
Finn was part of the England side that toured India 12 years ago under Alastair Cook's captaincy where spin duo Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar starred in the momentous 2-1 series triumph.
India have not lost a home Test series since England's win nine years ago and Finn believes the result of the series starting later this month will show how far the team has come under under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum's leadership.
"There's no doubt this is the toughest challenge an England team can face," the former England seam bowler told Sky Sports. "I think it's really a true mark of where a team is at, when you go to India and you've the conditions up against you.
"The way the team have played, they are going to try and counter this in a different way than anyone has done it before, which is going to be entertaining to watch. Whether it’ll bring about a different result at the end of it, I don’t know."
Finn played alongside Anderson in the third Test in 2012 when England won by seven wickets.
More than a decade later, 41-year-old Anderson, who has 690 Test wickets, remains part of the England set up as they jet off to India.
"Jimmy is superhuman. People have been anticipating he will retire for about seven years now and he keeps surprising people and performing," Finn said of the Lancashire seamer, who has 34 wickets and boasts an average of 29.32 from 13 Tests in India.
"He didn't have a fantastic summer last year but from knowing him as a character, he wouldn't be doing this unless he felt he could make a difference.
"A determined Jimmy Anderson is someone who will be important to England, especially making the most of the reverse swing because he is an absolute master at that.
"He would have trained hard, he has got the skills and has got the experience so I anticipate when he plays, he'll be an important cog."
England are arriving only three days before the first Test in Hyderabad on January 25 after spending 10 days at a training camp in Abu Dhabi. In 2012, they played three warm-up fixtures before the series began.
"If someone had offered Andy Flower three days preparation before a Test series, his head would have exploded," said Finn.
"There are a couple of caveats: Times have changed, clearly. We don’t even go to an Ashes and have three warm-up games now, like we did on my first tour in 2010/11. And you play those three matches as close to the intensity of a Test match as you can, which served those teams well at the time.
"We won in 2012 and we won the Ashes in 2010/11. But I do think we encounter problems with the warm-up games on that tour a bit because on that 2012 tour they played six 70mph medium pacers and no spinners and it didn’t replicate what you were going to find in the Test matches.
"It’s very hard to question this management team because every time we have over the last 18 months or so, they’ve dumbfounded everything we’ve thought of their decisions."
It will be the first Test England will play without Stuart Broad after the bowler retired from all formats of the game last year.
England have chosen to gamble with their squad by selecting the uncapped pair of Somerset off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, 20, and 24-year-old Lancashire slow left-armer Tom Hartley.
Jack Leach, along with Rehan Ahmed, will form part of England's quadruple spin attack and returns to the side after injury ruled him out of the 2023 Ashes.
Finn remains confident the two potential Test debutants will thrive under Stokes and McCullum's leadership.
"Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir have clearly been picked for a reason," he said. "They're both tall, they both bowl relatively quick and they should have good control because they're finger spinners.
"It's going to be tough for them. But if there is an environment where they could succeed, I think this England team is the one."
Stokes and McCullum have harnessed an enticing style of Test cricket that has led to some incredible success over the past few years and left ex-players like Finn and Graeme Swann wishing they played under this leadership.
"I was very fortunate, I played 126 games for England but you look at the way this team sets up and the way they play and me at my absolute peak, around 2012, early-2013, looks at this team and thinks you could have really been made to feel part of something," Finn reflected.
"Looking at this team from the outside and hearing how much fun it is to play for and the attitude towards going out there on the pitch, it’s one I would have loved to be involved in when I was at my peak.
"In this environment, you're encouraged to be yourself. The biggest challenge when you go and play international cricket is that you're encouraged to be someone that you’re not."
Follow England's five-Test series across Sky Sports' digital platforms with live blogs and reports.
