First blood to Curran in Test battle

SAM CURRAN and Chris Woakes had an unexpected bowl-off in Whangarei as they fight for a Test spot next week.

And on an unresponsive surface, against a young but confident New Zealand XI, it ended 1-0 to the 21-year-old Curran, who took one wicket to Woakes’ (above) zero.

Curran (below) wasn’t supposed to be playing, but Saqib Mahmood suffered a migraine in the morning and stayed at the team hotel.

Jofra Archer, unsurprisingly, was the only bowler to take two scalps as the game ended in a draw, with the hosts finishing on 285-4 in response to England’s eventual 376-2.

It was little more than a practice match, but did its job of putting overs into bowlers’ legs and giving batsmen time in the middle.

The question facing Joe

Root is simply how best to put together a bowling unit to take 20 wickets. With that in mind, Curran’s left-arm angle – a variation from the other three right-arm pace bowlers – should give him the nod.

England have come unstuck with an identikit seam attack away from home before, notably in Australia and New Zealand two winters ago, and Curran offers something different.

With Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Archer all nailed on, the battle between Woakes and Curran should be resolved with a likely Test XI to play in the final warm-up tomorrow, a proper first-class game.

Woakes said: “If you’re realistic about it, me and Sam are going for one spot.

“Potentially, they could go down that route of something different with the left-arm angle and, if they do, so be it.

“But it is up to me to do as much as I can to knock on the door and put my case forward.”