By the time England and Pakistan move on to the second Test, Sam Curran’s Test hiatus would have turned 5 years old. After staying away from the format for that long and meanwhile finding a footing in white-ball cricket, the ship of Curran’s return to Test side seemed to have sailed. But England selector Marcus North thinks that now, of all times, the team needs a player like him.
Curran expected to be fit by 3rd Test
This sudden surge in the need for an all-rounder has obviously come as a result of Ben Stokes’ retirement. Dan Lawrence, who was called into the side for the first time in 2024, is another such example, and the list wouldn’t stay limited to these two.
That Curran is currently not fully fit was the only reason why he wasn’t added to the squad alongside Lawrence to appraise the best fit for Stokes’ spot. North, however, hopes that the fast-bowling all-rounder would play red-ball again as soon as the third Test against Pakistan on September 9.
“With the retirement of Ben Stokes, it’s quite clear that he provided us with a certain balance in the team,” North, who was appointed as an England selector earlier this year, said on Thursday. “Sam Curran is certainly a player of interest for us.
“Sam has had a really heavy workload this summer playing a tremendous amount of cricket, and during that time he’s been doing so with a couple of niggles, which you expect most bowlers do. But at this stage with a couple of niggles, we’ve seen he’s missed a game in the Hundred, we don’t feel physically he’s just quite right there.”
Nos. 6 or 7 for Curran
Curran missed the IPL earlier with a groin injury. Having recovered from that, he returned to competitive cricket as a specialist batter only in the Vitality Blast, where he played seven games for Surrey.
He also played the white-ball series against India in its entirety, bowling in seven out of eight games. He’d have been fit for the Pakistan series as well had it not been for a niggle last week during the Hundred.
“I think [it would be] unfair to put him into these first two Tests. He’s someone our backroom staff and medical team will be working with in the coming weeks to make sure that he potentially becomes an option in the third Test. He’s someone that we really value highly and we see playing a role in the future for us as an all-rounder.”
“He’d be in the squad, I would have thought, and that would give us that option of either playing Sam Curran at No. 6 or 7 if we felt that was the right balance, or going with six [specialist] batters and [Jamie] Smith.”
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