IT’S CURRAN TO THE RESCUE
SAM CURRAN has set his sights on emulating the all-round contributions of Ben Stokes after his batting saved england from capitulation on the first day of the fourth Test against india.
The Surrey all-rounder made 78, his second half-century in three Tests in this series, and admitted: ‘i look at someone like Stokesy, who contributes with bat and ball. That’s what i want to do. All-rounders love putting in the big performances when the team need it.’
Curran, who reached his 50 with a six off Ravichandran Ashwin, enjoyed stands of 81 with Moeen Ali and then 63 with Stuart Broad as england recovered from a hapless 86 for six against the swinging ball to a still under-par 246 all out.
‘i just tried to play my natural game,’ continued Curran. ‘i try to play like i play for Surrey, with no fear, nice and positive. i try not to overthink it. Luckily, it came off.’
He was too modest to point out that, in this series, he is averaging 51 with the bat and 24 with the ball, while Stokes’ figures are 24 with the bat and 29 with the ball. Right now, it would help england’s cause if Stokes emulated Curran.
Though Curran said he was ‘disappointed’ to have been dropped at Trent Bridge, he added: ‘i took it as a positive. i just wanted to keep working hard and playing the way i do.
‘i was unlucky to miss out but i love being around the squad. There are some great names in the team and i’m learning so much.
‘it was pretty tough. it swung massively throughout the day. even when i was probably in my 30s, it was still swinging around consistently when the ball was 65 overs old. That surprised us a little bit — how much it swung and how much it did off the wicket.
‘There were some very good balls in there, to a lot of the top order. They got some very good ones. But we only worry about the end result. We got 246, which from 86 for six looks a decent score. it’s a massive positive going into the second day, with a bit of momentum.’
indian seamer Jasprit Bumrah, who finished with three for 46 — including the wickets of Keaton Jennings and Jonny Bairstow — said: ‘Curran played well. He was taking his chances but when he came into bat, he was playing the waiting game and left the ball well.’
india closed on 19 for none from just four overs at the start of their reply.