Curran and Stokes double act is one not to split up
England’s all-rounders dismiss the either/or debate with potentially match-turning wickets
The young gun dropped at Trent Bridge and the returning tough who took his place both appear indispensable. Before another former discard, Moeen Ali, ripped India’s lower order out with a five-wicket haul, Ben Stokes and Sam Curran struck vital blows in a series now tantalisingly poised.
Curran is youth, Stokes is experience – good and bad. One made a celebrity’s side-entrance return in Nottingham and was welcomed back as a talisman. The other, only 20, was told to stand aside despite a man-of-the-match display at Edgbaston.
Putting lightning back in a bottle is a risk but Curran’s electricity was not stuck in there for long. He took Virat Kohli’s wicket for 46 on this second day before Stokes removed Ajinkya Rahane with strategic swing for 11.
The either/or of Stokes and Curran at Trent Bridge has turned into “both”. Even if England hang on in this series, the future shape of the side is unclear. An overreliance on all-rounders and a dearth of specialist Test batsmen who can lay down a base is a challenge for the selectors.
The topsy-turvy nature of this England-india series cannot disguise the need for a review.
Changes to the starting XI have been dressed up as squad rotation. Some prefer to call them tinkering, or over-thinking. Whichever, Curran is the kind of talent a country can build the future around, for his temperament as much as his technique.
At Edgbaston in the first Test he took four for 74 in India’s first innings and struck 63 to rescue England’s second turn with the bat. Chris Woakes took over as England’s standout player at Lord’s and kept his place in Nottingham. With Stokes cleared of affray in Bristol, Curran was part of a conversation familiar to all rising stars. If it seemed rough to leave him out, 20-year-olds have no divine right to displace household names overnight.
Besides, cricket’s gods were watching over him. An injury to Woakes allowed the youngest of the remarkable Curran brothers another crack at India. Did he take it? Ask Kohli.
Before we get into numbers, Curran exudes youth’s most precious quality.
Fearlessness. He steps on to the stage not to survive until curtainfall but to own it. Unimpeded by dressing-room politics, factionalism, scars or the jaundice of the old pro, he throws his talent at the opposition without trepidation. He comes to the game fresh, invigorated, open-minded. His spirit is free and his limbs loose. This never lasts for ever, but it is worth watching when it bursts into view. With his 78, batting at No8, Curran had moved to 205 runs for the series – more than Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings combined.
Only three others had reached their first two fifties with sixes: MS Dhoni, Andrew Symonds and Graeme Swann. In the 42nd over here, with India 142 for two, Curran angled a ball away from Kohli’s bat and India’s captain pushed at it like an Englishman. Cook took the catch.
No wonder Sunil Gavaskar told Test Match Special listeners: “Curran is such an impressive young cricketer. Even if he is not taking wickets he is bowling a good length and line and makes the batsman play just about everything.”
Then it was Stokes’s turn. With his tyre-width knee bandage, visible beneath his whites, Stokes was not breathing fire in his usual manner.
Joe Root’s logic in throwing him the ball was to extend the curse he had on Rahane. Stokes has the measure of India’s No5 and, despite bowling no-balls and trundling up at gentle-seaming pace, soon had Rahane in trouble again.
Nothing is simple with Stokes, of course. On Sky, Nasser Hussain reported Root’s annoyance with his bowlers apparently revising the captain’s field placings. It was, said the former England captain, a test of Root’s authority, just as a bouncer from Stokes was a test of Pujara’s helmet.
By then, Rahane had fallen lbw, to a Stokes inswinger, and Moeen was about to cast his spell. Stokes bowled only seven overs but the message they conveyed was significant. The same is true of his efforts to bat with more discipline than those above him, both at Trent Bridge and here.
At the close, England trailed by 21 with no loss. The series is lurching around nicely, and new figures are stepping forward: Pujara and Moeen especially. Stokes is a here-and-now player: dependable aggression, even with a strapped-up knee.
Curran on the other hand is a glimpse of tomorrow, a dash of fresh energy: the type of young player you hope will retain his natural enthusiasm for a good few years to come. The thing he already shares with Stokes is edge.