England must trust art over science and stick with Sam Curran

Both young spinners boast modest first-class records but find themselves on one of the toughest trips in the game, an away Test tour of India. Arguably, though, contrary to what Key suggests, their inclusions speak to the developing science of selection rather than its art.

Over the course of the 25-minute press briefing, Key repeatedly pointed to the pair’s physical attributes – they possess abnormally high release points for English finger spinners, as well as the ability to fire the ball into the pitch at pace. Crucially, these are attributes England’s thinktank view as essential for success in India. They’ve looked at what has worked in India and have identified the English spinners they think are most likely to replicate that. To a degree, these are still science-based selections; release point talk isn’t exactly overflowing with artistic merit.

If Bashir plays in India, he will be the 10th Englishman to play Test cricket before turning 21. Sam Curran – the member of that particular club whose introduction to international cricket was the most spectacular – perhaps owed his initial call-up more to the art of selection than anyone else.

Back in 2018, a teenaged Sam Curran was fast-tracked into the senior set-up to cover for an injured Ben Stokes. At the time, Curran was yet to score a first-class hundred nor had he lit up the County Championship with the ball. Curran averaged nearly 50 with the ball in Division One in 2017. Neither did he possess any physical traits that were obviously transferable to international cricket; he was short in stature and was not a prodigious swinger of the ball.

He had, though, demonstrated a more than handy knack for lifting his game for the bigger occasions. As a 17-year-old, he almost single-handedly took Surrey over the line in a Lord’s final. Weeks before his maiden Test call-up he claimed a 10-wicket match haul against a Yorkshire side with a middle order of Cheteshwar Pujara, Joe Root, Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow. Of the quartet, only Bairstow escaped Curran’s clutches with Pujara twice falling cheaply to the young all-rounder.

Curran was a luxury pick in a side flush with all-round pedigree. In effect, he was England’s fourth seamer and their No.8. He was not supposed to be a reliable workhorse, filling in overs here or there; he was included as a potential match-winner and win matches he did. England won the series 4-1, and opposition captain Virat Kohli picked him out as Player of the Series for his game-changing interventions.

Fast forward five and a half years and that same role indefinability was on show yesterday evening in Grenada. Curran’s second over cost 30 runs as he was the victim of a brutal assault off the bat of Rovman Powell; his trademark changes of pace were not effective and such was the devastation of that over, he was pulled back from his usual role at the death with Chris Woakes used in his stead.

Not to be deterred by his own misfortune, he later struck a brisk half-century in his first T20I innings at No.4 after he was promoted to break up England’s right-hand heavy top order as West Indies’ pair of left-arm spinners strangled the run chase. In his primary discipline, Curran was well short of the mark and in what is still his secondary discipline he kept England in the game for longer than they should have been.

It continues what has surely been Curran’s toughest run of career. Curran was dropped three games into England’s miserable World Cup campaign and despite England’s results barely improving from there, he was left on the outside looking in. Retained for the tour of the Caribbean, he recorded record-breakingly expensive figures in the curtain-raising ODI and after a brief respite, yesterday conceded the most runs in an over by an English bowler in a men’s T20I since Stuart Broad’s infamous battle with Yuvraj Singh at the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007.

It was hoped that a return to T20 cricket would bring a change in fortune. In ODI cricket, Curran has been tasked with a difficult role that doesn’t really suit his skillset. His batting has added depth to the order but really, with the way England balance their side, Curran has been required to bowl his full quota of overs through different phases of the innings. His main weapon as a white-ball bowler, cunning use of his variations and holding his nerve at the death, is of little use in the middle overs of an ODI when batters will happily milk bowlers for a run a ball with minimal risk.

The specialism of T20 cricket almost counterintuitively suits Curran. Players are deployed to perform very specific roles at very specific junctures which means that England go from a side that lacks balance in ODIs to one brimming with all-round options in T20Is. In Grenada, for example, they had a man with 10 first-class hundreds batting at No.10 and eight viable bowling options to call upon. England can play to Curran’s strengths; his potential weaknesses are less exposed as there is more cover around him.

Conditions at last year’s T20 World Cup – where Curran was named Player of the Tournament – also suited him in a way that they might not in the Caribbean in six months time. Massive boundaries in Australia made his variations more effective, with miscues more likely to find a fielder in the deep rather than sail over the ropes. As we’ve seen so far this series on much smaller grounds, even when Curran successfully deceives his opponent there is still a very real risk of being hit for six. Curran also lacks experience in the Caribbean; the two T20Is he’s played this series are the only two T20s he’s ever played in the West Indies. For a bowler famed for absorbing as much information as possible, he has had scant opportunity to build up experience of playing in Caribbean conditions.

One of the biggest mistakes England made in their 2023 World Cup campaign was conflating the two white-ball formats, taking maxims that hold true in IPL cricket or T20s in general and applying them to 50-over games with minimal success. There is a currently a clamour to move on from Curran, predominantly on account of his ODI form. But to do so now would be a mistake. This is a volatile format and in the West Indies, he’s encountering the best six-hitting unit in the world on home turf.

England’s T20 side is in a way reminiscent of the Test side Curran initially broke into. Its abundance of all-round talent complements Curran’s strengths. He doesn’t have to bowl in phases that don’t suit him and like yesterday, he can be promoted in the batting order if the situation necessitates a change in tact with minimal responsibility placed on his shoulders given the depth around him.

Ever since Curran broke onto the scene he has been a difficult cricketer to characterise. He is a luxury player; not necessarily someone you can build a team around but if the foundations are in place he adds to a side’s match-winning capability. This England T20 side can afford that luxury.