FEARLESS SAM BRINGS SUCH JOY TO THE JOB
In a summer when England have shuffled their batting order like dodgy tracks on an iPad, one tune keeps hitting the right notes — the all-round joie de vivre of Sam Curran.
Actually, ‘ keeps hitting’ isn’t quite right. Curran was dropped for the third Test at Trent Bridge, two games after he was man of the match in the nail-biter at Edgbaston.
As he crashed and cracked his way to 78 on the first day in Southampton, turning England’s dismal 86 for six into a serviceable 246, that decision looked even more baffling than it seemed at the time.
Right now, this England team are so full of batsmen wondering where their next run is coming from that axing a player who brings such joy to the job feels like a crime against cricket. And that’s before we get on to his bowling.
There was logic in his omission at nottingham, of course there was. Ben Stokes was available again after being found not guilty of affray and Chris Woakes had just scored a century at Lord’s. The absence of either would have been regarded in some quarters as a gaffe.
But Stokes was part of the problem when England pitched too short on the first morning in nottingham. Since the left-arm Curran’s stock delivery is the fulllength inswinger to the righthander, it is inconceivable he would have made the same mistake.
In his absence, England’s exclusively right-arm attack had only Adil Rashid’s leg-breaks for variety.
On the eve of this match, a senior member of the dressing room privately admitted that England had erred in dropping Curran.
And his batting here made the point with knobs on.
Those who know him well at Surrey say he has always had the potential to become a batting all-rounder — a theory based partly on the concern that, if the ball stops swinging, he loses some of his potency. Since his six wickets so far against India have cost only 24, that may be a problem for another time.
But the compliment to his batting is wellfounded. At Edgbaston, his adventurous 63 saved England’s second innings from the depths of 87 for seven, and left India with too many to chase. now, as eyes were rolled at the repeated ineptitude of the top order, he repeated the trick.
And on both occasions he reached his half- century with a six, creaming Ishant Sharma over extra cover in the first Test and hoisting Ravichandran Ashwin over midwicket here.
These are the deeds of a fearless cricketer and they were enacted without a hint of recklessness.
Instead of continually asking his batsmen to strike the right balance between defence and attack, coach Trevor Bayliss should make them sit down and watch Curran’s innings on loop.
Some England batsmen have been too tentative, others too headstrong. But Curran appears to intuitively understand when to leave and when to smite.
Few shots all day were as classy as his straight drive for four off Hardik Pandya the ball after he had scythed him through to the point boundary. And when Ashwin dropped a fraction short after tea, he rocked back and cut him for four. If the strokeplay was high pedigree, so was the game management. Curran forged a restorative seventh-wicket stand of 81 with Moeen Ali, running hard and attacking the rare bad ball.
And he then took charge of a ninth- wicket stand of 63 with Stuart Broad, whose contribution was 17. Jasprit Bumrah was carved through the covers and Mohammed Shami deposited down the ground.
Veering between impish and brutish, Curran posed India’s excellent attack a headache they had yet to encounter on a day when the ball swung throughout.
In a series for batsmen in which only Virat Kohli has risen with much regularity above the mediocrity, Curran is averaging 51. For England, only Jonny Bairstow has scored more than his 205 runs and he’s had two more innings.
It all made you wonder whether England should have ridden the crest of his wave and allowed him an over or two against India’s openers with the new ball. After the innings he had played, no one would have been surprised if he had ended the day with a wicket.