Finn praised for impressive Ashes return
England's comeback star Steven Finn has been tipped to go from strength to strength by the coach he credits for his resurgence.
Middlesex bowling coach Richard Johnson was singled out by Finn for helping him recover his form to the extent that, two years after being deemed "not selectable" by then-coach Ashley Giles, he returned to be England's man of the match in a thumping win over Australia in the third Investec Test at Edgbaston.
And Finn's mentor believes his star pupil is not just back to his previous level, he is better than ever.
"It's been an absolutely brilliant couple of days for him," Johnson told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"The hours and hours that he's put in in the last couple of years to get back to this place, standing at the top of his mark with a smile on his face taking wickets for England again is a huge thing and I'm very happy for him.
"I see Finny now as a better bowler than he was before, when we set this out 18 months ago.
"The first step along the journey was to get him back to where he was before but then to move on to another level, make him better than he was before, and I think we saw this week that he's added some new skills."
Finn took two wickets as Australia were bowled out for 136 in their first innings, but it was in the second that he came to the fore.
He ripped out the Australian middle order of Steve Smith, Michael Clarke, Adam Voges and Mitchell Marsh in a hostile spell before adding the scalps of Mitchell Johnson and Peter Nevill for figures of six for 79.
Clarke and Voges edged successive Finn away-swingers to slip and Johnson said: "He's now getting the ball to move away from the right-handers, swinging it nicely, and that's a new skill for him.
"For him to have the confidence to stand up and do that in a Test match when really he's only been doing it in county cricket for a couple of games, that's brilliant.
"It just shows that he's moved to a different level, in my eyes, and he'll just go from strength to strength from here."