The latest rumours coming out of the England camp suggest a debut for Middlesex’s Steven Finn against Bangladesh tomorrow. The surprise is that it appears likely to come at the expense of James Tredwell, who seemed to have secured the second spinner’s position with eight wickets against Bangladesh A in Chittagong earlier this week.

England’s balance has been the source of much speculation. With Kevin Pietersen’s scratchy form and the safety-first tendencies of this regime, it was always the safe bet that Michael Carberry would make a debut at the top of the order. Six batsmen and Matt Prior leaves room for four bowlers, which under normal circumstances in Bangladesh would comprise two seamers and two spinners (the home side are likely to field two quicks and three spinners).

Yet Andy Flower’s plans have been complicated by Stuart Broad’s injury problems – a back spasm limiting him to net bowling in the build up to this match. Broad is now England’s senior seamer on this tour after Graham Onions joined Ryan Sidebottom and James Anderson on the sofa at home. England are desperate for him to play but seem to have decided that they cannot risk placing an intolerable burden on Tim Bresnan.

So in comes Finn, a 6ft 7in 20-year-old with just one full season of county cricket to his name, who leapfrogged Liam Plunkett and Ajmal Shahzad with 18 impressive overs against Bangladesh A. Angus Fraser told TWC yesterday that he believes Finn has a big future and as spin-friendly as Bangladesh pitches are, maybe the selectors believe his bounce will unsettle Bangladeshi batsmen more than Tredwell’s gentle turn.

If true Tredwell can consider himself an unfortunate victim of circumstance. Had he played, his two first-class hundreds would have made him one of England’s strongest ever No.11’s and left Broad as the only member of the side without a first-class century. As it is, Finn looks set to be the cursory rabbit, but as long as he can produce some magic with the ball no Englishman in Chittagong will care about that.

Sam Collins is editor of thewisdencricketer.com