Try telling Steven Finn that England’s tour to Bangladesh is inconsequential. If Finn, the 20-year-old Middlesex seamer, makes his Test debut in Chittagong on Friday, it will complete a startling rise for a player who has played just 31 first-class games and one full season for his county.

Finn is used to being blooded early – he made his Middlesex debut at 16 (their youngest debutant since Fred Titmus) – and has represented England all the way up, but it was not until last summer that his form demanded a regular place at Middlesex, with 53 wickets at 30.64. He showed few signs of nerves after stepping off the plane in Chittagong, impressing against Bangladesh ‘A’ with his hostility and economy.

One man who thinks he can handle the step-up is his Middlesex coach Angus Fraser. Speaking to TWC, Fraser says, “If he gets a chance against Bangladesh on Friday I’m sure he’ll make a decent fist of it. I don’t think there is ever a bad time to be involved in the England setup, to get recognition from your country is what it’s all about. If it had been an Ashes series, then it might possibly have been too early for him, but it’s Bangladesh and it’s a nice way to ease your way into Test cricket.”

At 6ft 7 inches, Finn has drawn inevitable comparisons with Steve Harmison, although Fraser was quick to play them down. “He doesn’t quite have the spite or hostility of Harmison yet – who was certainly a pretty nasty handful when he got it right in matches, but Steven has the potential to follow that style and hopefully be more consistent.

“His main strengths are what you see. He’s 6ft 7in, he’s pretty athletic and he can bowl at 85mph plus – he’ll always get a bit of bounce out of pitches, which will be disconcerting for the batsman. But he’s young, he’s only had one full season of first-class cricket, and consistency will come in time, he’ll get that by playing regularly.  He needs more match-awareness at times, what to bowl and bowling to different fields in different situations but that will come with experience. He’s quite slight at the moment so he’ll get stronger and maybe even get quicker. He still has some way to go before he is the finished article but he is progressing well.”

Fraser was also quick to praise Finn’s maturity – he conducted contract negotiations at Middlesex without using an agent: “He wants to be responsible for his own career and make the decisions and be involved in it rather than just be involved in the pleasant parts of it.”

Fraser believes that Finn’s self-awareness will continue to serve him well, “I spoke to Steve the other day, as he was due to go to Dubai to play in the Durham vs MCC match, but he feels that he will have had enough bowling and fitness work under his belt in Bangladesh, so he won’t be going there. That is another example of his maturity. He may well then disappear when Onions and Anderson are back, but if he doesn’t feature for England next summer I’d like to think he’ll have another good year and will be pushing for a place on the plane to Australia next winter.”

Sam Collins is editor of thewisdencricketer.com

Follow him on twitter @wisdencric_sam