Sam Curran: What all-rounder brings to England cannot be quantified

Even before the sports data revolution in the last few years, stats have always played a big part in cricket.

Batting averages, bowling averages, run rates, strike rates. All pretty basic stuff but nevertheless important, particularly the first two, when it comes to judging a player and picking a side.

• Four-star Curran gives England edge
• First Test scorecard

Of course, behind the scenes at the highest level the stats have become rather more sophisticated with England known to use weighted averages, for example, when assessing players. Nowadays data analysts can provide selectors, coaches and captains with all manner of facts and figures on just about any player in the professional game in a matter of moments.

However, there are some qualities that no matter how many databases you have at your disposal, are nigh on impossible to quantify. It is something that has undoubtedly worked against Sam Curran on a number of occasions since making his Test debut 18 months ago.

For all that he has impressed, with both bat and ball, during his first 13 Tests, the all-rounder has been unable to really cement his place in the XI. Even during his breakthrough summer in 2018, in which he was England’s player of the series against India, Curran was dropped for the third Test. He had been man of the match in the first.

In that instance, and a number of others since, Curran suffered as a result of being seen as the ‘easy’ option when it came to leaving somebody out. After his showing on day one at Centurion though, the evidence is stacking up in his favour.

What Curran really needs now though is for the numbers to start adding up. He came into the Test with a batting average of 30.57 and a bowling average of 31.37, decent numbers for a 21-year-old early in his Test career but not enough to demand a place in the XI, especially when it is Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad or Jofra Archer who would have to miss out instead.

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“When Sam Curran was out of the side for most of the Ashes, I was looking and thinking ‘how do you get Sam Curran into that side’?” Nasser Hussain said at the close of play in Pretoria.

“If you have Archer, Broad, Anderson and [Ben] Stokes, how does Sam Curran get in that side? Is he better than any of those four cricketers? I was thinking no. But then when he does play, you just cannot leave this lad out. He is that sort of cricketer.”

In Stokes, England have got their genuine all-rounder and while he caught the eye with some superb counter-attacking knocks, Curran is not going to get into the team as a batsman. His ability to score runs down the order is extremely useful but it is as a bowler that England need him.

You then compare his attributes with the ball to those he is up against, Chris Woakes is the other bowler in the mix, and Curran’s average pace is the slowest of the five, his stature means he does not get the bounce of either Archer or Broad and while he gets the ball to swing, so do Anderson and Woakes, and Stokes offers that as well. It is easy to how leaving him out is, well, the easy option.

The obvious edge Curran does have though comes from being a left-armer and providing a different angle of attack. It is an option Joe Root is undoubtedly happy to have but that is not always going to be enough to get him the nod.

What he offers above all else is that much harder to put your finger on.

What it equates to is this: he makes things happen. Twice on the first day in Centurion he was brought into the attack and struck in his first over. When the game went flat, he was the bowler who brought it back to life. He needed to as well, Archer and Broad had been struck down by illness in the build-up to the game and Anderson was playing his first competitive match since the start of August.

It meant there was pressure on Curran to step up and he thrived. He found movement throughout the day, showing his skill by getting the ball to swing both ways as well as nipping it off the seam. His reward was four wickets, including that of the dangerous Quinton de Kock on 95. He just has that knack.

There are still questions over his effectiveness when there is less lateral movement on offer as a torrid tour of the West Indies at the start of the year showed. But in even less bowler-friendly conditions in New Zealand, Curran charged in time and again and was as threatening as any England bowler across the two games.

“He was selected for England because whenever he played for Surrey, he often had an impact on the game and that’s exactly what he’s done in an England shirt,” Hussain added.

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