Curran spares England blushes

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 recalled Surrey all-rounder (left) made 78, his second half-century in three Tests in this series, and revealed: ‘I look at someone like Stokesy, who contributes with bat and ball. That is 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, produced stands of 81 with Moeen Ali and then 63 with Stuart Broad as England recovered from 86 for six against the swinging ball to a still under-par 246 all out. ‘I just tried to play my natural game,’ he explained. ‘I try to play like I do for Surrey, no fear. Nice and positive — not overthink it. Luckily, it came off.’ Curran 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. It would certainly help England just now if Stokes emulated Curran. Although Althoug Curran said he was disappointed disapp to have been dropped drop at Trent Bridge, he added: ad ‘I took it as a positive. p I wanted to keep working w hard and playing the way I do. ‘I was unlucky to miss out but I love being around the squad because b I’m learning so much. m ‘It was pretty tough today — it swung massively all day. Even wwhen I was in the 30s, it was stilstill swinging around consistentlyit when the ball was 65 overs old. That surprised us — 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 worry only about the end result. ‘We got 246 which, from 86 for six, looks decent. It’s a massive positive going into the second day with a bit of momentum.’ India 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 in to bat he was playing the waiting game and left the ball well.’ India closed on 19 for none from four overs and Bumrah is hoping they can cash in and level the series. ‘If you’d told us in the morning that we’d get them out for 250, we’d have taken that,’ he said. ‘You can’t be too greedy.’