Steven Finn intends to model his style of captaincy on team-mate Eoin Morgan when he takes the reins for Middlesex’s Royal London One-day Cup campaign.
The 6ft 7in paceman has been appointed to lead the Seaxes’ 50-over side for the first time, with club captain Dawid Malan unavailable as he prepares for England’s first Test against Pakistan.
And Finn says he will draw primarily on his experiences of playing under Morgan – England’s white-ball skipper – for both club and country, as well as New Zealand legend Brendon McCullum.
“Eoin Morgan and Brendon McCullum are both very attacking captains and the ones I’ve enjoyed playing under the most,” said Finn. “That’s something I’ll look to do – to be aggressive in terms of trying to take wickets and push the scoreboard on as a batting unit.
“I think we’ve got the players that can do that and I’m lucky that I’ve got some experienced heads out there to help me make decisions, bounce ideas off and ensure I don’t do anything too rash.
“I’ll be trying to have Eoin as close to me as possible – obviously he’s done lots of it before for England and, having my first run-out in captaincy, it’ll be important to have him out there to seek his advice.
“It’s a great honour to be asked to captain the club I’ve played for since I was a kid and I’m very much looking forward to it.”
Middlesex’s Royal London Cup record is somewhat modest – they have yet to qualify for the knockout stages since the competition replaced the old 40-over format in 2014.
But Finn is hoping local knowledge can help get Middlesex off to a good start this time – they open their schedule with two fixtures at Radlett, against Essex on Thursday and Kent three days later.
Finn’s side have won three of their four previous cup games at the Hertfordshire venue, which is home to their second XI and has also been used by the club as a pre-season training base.
“That’s where I played my first ever game of cricket – an under-eights game on the bottom field at Radlett, so it holds nice memories,” added the 29-year-old seamer.
“We train a lot at Radlett, we played really well there last year and got the win against Glamorgan, so we’ll be looking forward to going there again.
“We know the conditions better than the teams visiting and we can use that to our advantage, but we’ve got a long way to improve from where we’ve been in the last couple of years.
“I think we’ve got a squad that can rival most teams out there and hopefully we can do ourselves justice.”
Weekly feature provided by Ben Kosky of the ECB Reporters Network
