Tom gets the message –– your country needs you
TOM CURRAN thought he was dreaming when he woke up in the middle of the night to find a message telling him he had been called up for England’s ODI tour of the Caribbean.
The 21-year-old Surrey fast bowler has been summoned to Antigua from the England Lions tour of Sri Lanka as cover for the injured Jake Ball.
Curran has already started his 9,300-mile journey from Dambulla, deep in the Sri Lankan jungle, to the West Indies, where he will arrive tomorrow ahead of the start of the three-match series on Friday.
His first senior call-up is reward for his fine form for Surrey and a productive winter with England’s second string, for whom he has taken 10 wickets in two recent four-day matches against Sri Lanka A at an average of less than 19.
Ball, above, had a scan yesterday on the right knee he injured during England’s final warm-up match against a West Indies Board President’s XI in St Kitts on Monday.
And the Nottinghamshire fast bowler’s misfortune has presented an opportunity for the elder of the two Curran brothers. Tom’s younger sibling Sam, 19, is also on Lions duty in Sri Lanka.
Cape Town-born Curran learnt of his call-up when he got up in the early hours of yesterday morning and saw a text message from chief selector James Whitaker. He said: “I woke up about 4.30am and saw I had a message on my phone. I read it a few times, couldn’t quite come to grips with it, trying to pinch myself to wake up. Put it this way, I couldn’t get back to sleep.
“It’s all pretty surreal right now. But I’m giddy, I can’t wait to get out there.”
Curran’s call-up gives him a chance to stake a claim for a place in England’s squad for this summer’s Champions Trophy.
But England’s decision to go for the elder of the two Curran brothers, whose father Kevin played 11 ODIs for Zimbabwe, was a surprise given assistant coach Paul Farbrace indicated on Monday that Sam, a leftarm bowler, might get the nod to join the squad after Ball’s injury during the twowicket warm-up win in St Kitts. Farbrace, in charge of England while coach Trevor Bayliss takes a break back home in his native Australia, had said: “We haven’t got a name. Is it a chance to add some variety with a left-armer into the squad? Or do we go with the next best right-armer or the next best bowler?”
Opener Alex Hales, meanwhile, arrived in Antigua yesterday to continue his rehab from a broken bone in his right hand alongside his team-mates, who also flew into the island from nearby St Kitts a few hours earlier.
Farbrace indicated Hales would not come into consideration for selection until the third and final ODI in Barbados on March 9.