Ashley Giles confirms departure of Steven Finn from England's squad

Steven Finn will miss the remainder of England's tour in Australia in order to return home and "continue working on technical aspects of his game".

The tall paceman has been conspicuous by his absence, with the 24-year-old the only player in the 17-man Ashes squad not to be used during the 5-0 whitewash.

Finn did not feature in the opening one-day international defeat to Australia and was once again kicking his heels on the sidelines in the tour match against a Prime Minister's XI on Tuesday.

There have been several rumours that Finn has regressed in recent months and the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed in a statement that the Middlesex man will miss the remaining four ODIs and three Twenty20 matches Down Under.

England limited overs coach Ashley Giles admits Finn is short on confidence and needs some time away from the game.

"Sometimes through your career you go through those ups and downs and his timing is out," he said.

"That then can affect your confidence and it certainly is not coming out as quick as he'd like either.

"Sometimes through your career you go through those ups and downs and his timing is out. That then can affect your confidence and it certainly is not coming out as quick as he'd like either."

Ashley Giles

"I suppose he's been in this state for at least a couple of months and it hasn't worked and we feel now that it's best to take him out of this and sometimes you have to do that, you have to take guys back.

Space

"You push them forward and at the moment Steven needs a bit of space and I think in the very short term, probably a couple of weeks away from cricket full stop."

Giles insists that Finn remains a key player for England, but wants him to recover from a draining tour and then focus on some big tournaments ahead.

"He is a really key asset to us going forward," said Giles. "I look at it, maybe selfishly from the one-day and T20 perspective, but certainly as a Test bowler as well.

"You'd almost call him in such a big business, a million pound asset and when you've got assets like that you need to look after them and do what's best for them and at the moment it's to go home and sort himself out.

"Mentally he's disappointed that he's not been able to perform as he would have liked and he's very tired as you would be when you're constantly thinking about ways of getting back to bowling how you know you can.

"He's bound to be tired, he needs a couple of weeks off just to be himself for a while and be the young man that he is.

"With a T20 World Cup and then of course World Cup here next year, yeah we need him back. Fully fit and firing."

Angus Fraser, Finn's coach at Middlesex, backed England's decision. "It seems the harder he has tried, the worst it has got.

"There have been some conversations between myself, Middlesex and England over the last couple of days and I think allowing Steve some time away, some time to get himself back to where he wants to be, is the right decision."