Sam Curran has gone from Player of the Tournament in England’s victorious 2022 T20 World Cup winnings campaign to being unsure of his place in their best XI days away from the start of the next edition. From a rapid ascension to England’s most important player to tumbling down the pecking order, Katya Witney examines Curran’s last 18 months.
Sam Curran has gone from Player of the Tournament in England’s victorious 2022 T20 World Cup winnings campaign to being unsure of his place in their best XI days away from the start of the next edition. From a rapid ascension to England’s most important player to tumbling down the pecking order, Katya Witney examines Curran’s last 18 months.
After England chased down their target against Pakistan at the MCG, cueing wild celebrations as double world champions, Sam Curran was quickly pulled aside for post-match interview duties. Awarded Player of the Tournament for his 13 wickets that cost just 6.52 runs an over, he was quick to deflect praise.
“I don’t think I should be getting this,” he told Ian Bishop. “I think the way Stokesy played there to get a 50 in a final, he does it so many times for us.”
While Stokes’ unbeaten 52 was the core factor that allowed England to chase down Pakistan’s modest target that day, Curran’s own contribution and the indispensable role he filled for England throughout the tournament were vital.
His opening over, the third of the match, went for just four runs, his second for one, plus the crucial breakthrough of Mohammad Rizwan. Enticing the drive with just enough movement off the seam nipping back in, stumps shattered – a classic Curran dismissal broke the possibility of a Babar-Rizwan special. From there, in a carbon copy of the modus operandi England had set out for him throughout the tournament, Curran didn’t come back until the death overs. With four overs to go and Shan Masood and Shadab Khan having taken 29 off the previous three, Pakistan were threatening to go past 160.
Three balls later, the partnership was broken when Curran tempted Masood to play at one shaping away. That wicket triggered a collapse, one more wicket going to Curran, and a lowly target of 138 to get. While England made it look tricky, it was a well-below par score. Curran was named the Player of the Match for his 3-12 from four overs.
Across the tournament, Curran took 13 wickets – four more than England’s next-best seamer, Mark Wood – at 11.38, conceding just 6.52 an over, a similar economy rate to England’s most important bowler, Adil Rashid.
Curran’s emergence as a powerplay specialist at both ends of the innings snuck up on many. In 2021, he only bowled his full quota of overs in two of the eight T20Is he played, operating mainly as a bit-part in the middle overs and filling in when necessary in the powerplay.
Following England’s disappointment in the 2021 T20 World Cup, Curran was fast-tracked into his role as the focal point in the attack. In the 13 T20Is he played between June 2022 and England’s World Cup opener, he bowled less than his four-over quota only four times and was primarily used at the death and the end of the opening powerplay. With no Chris Jordan, England’s reliable option at the end of the innings for years, Curran slotted into a similar mould, albeit with a different skill set.
The variations he sent down and the swing he naturally gets allowed him to sit atop the pile of seamers at the T20 World Cup in Australia, and following that, the world felt at his feet. A record IPL deal and a call-up to England’s near-impenetrable 50-over squad followed, but signs of his effectiveness waning began to show in Bangladesh three months after the final in Melbourne.
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With the focus firmly back on 50-over cricket and England attempting to make him into the same death bowling force he was in the shorter version of the game, those warning signs heightened against New Zealand over the summer. Conditions in Australia showed Curran at his best. Big boundaries mean miscues more often than not go into the hands of fielders in the deep than over the rope; on surfaces others struggled to exploit, Curran was able to find movement. Away from that environment, his economy rate naturally went up and the wicket column went down.
In the period between the 2022 T20 World Cup and the 50-over competition, Curran took two wickets in six T20Is, at an average of 67.00. He was then dropped from the 50-over side three matches into England’s disastrous campaign in perhaps the most glaring example of the dangers of amalgamating a T20 approach to the ODI format.
Still, Rob Key made it plain he backed Curran looking ahead to the next T20 World Cup by selecting him in England’s reset tour to the Caribbean, a perfect opportunity to trial their attack in the same condition for the tournament. Once again, the postage-stamp-sized grounds in the West Indies and relative slowness of the surfaces created a problematic recipe. Curran conceded almost 12 an over in the T20I series and only bowled more than two overs on one occasion.
When Key named the squad to head back out to the Caribbean for their T20 title defence, while Curran was in it, despite more difficulties in a run-fet IPL, so was Jordan. In explaining Jordan’s inclusion, Key said: “The fact that he can bowl at the death has always been something we look for.”
Perhaps the most telling sign of Curran’s current status in England’s ranks is that he didn’t feature in either of the completed T20Is against Pakistan, the last chance to finalise their attack roles before the start of the tournament. Instead, a fit-again Wood and Jofra Archer operated in tandem opening the bowling and at the death. With Reece Topley also in the picture, Curran has fallen down the pecking order. Neither was available for the 2022 World Cup.
Curran will undoubtedly play a role in England’s tournament. His utility as a batter and low release point may find success on some grounds in the Caribbean. But, it’s unlikely he will be as integral as last time out, with more variable conditions dictating what will likely be a more flexible attack. In a role defined 18 months ago, Curran now finds himself once again searching for his best utility in international cricket.
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