Curran wins first England contract

ENGLAND all-rounder Sam Curran has been awarded his first central contract after fine displays in the 4-1 Test series win over India. The 20-year-old scored 272 runs and claimed 11 wickets to win the man-ofthe-series award. Yorkshire’s Adil Rashid has landed a contract for Tests and limited-overs cricket, despite not playing red-ball county matches at the start of the year. There are no opening batsmen among the 10 given Test contracts, but Ben Stokes gets one despite still facing a charge of bringing the game into disrepute.

ENGLAND wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor will miss the Women’s World T20 in the West Indies as she continues to battle anxiety. The squad is announced next week. England coach Mark Robinson said: ‘Sarah hasn’t been able to train fully due to not being as fit as she wants to be from a psychological point of view.’