The backstop
Barney Ronay
Brothers who can make cricket cool
Tom and Sam Curran in action together for England Lions at Trent Bridge last summer
Last summer my two sons, aged 12 and 10, came back from cricket practice trailing after my wife in a state of some agitation. Was everything all right? Did they find the ground, shared with Surrey’s New Malden base, OK? Yes, my wife explained. A nice young man had shown them the way and was very polite and charming. They’d had a chat. More anguish. Heads in hands. “Mum,” they hissed. “That wasn’t a nice young man. That was TOM CURRAN.” Exit with more wincing, shaking heads and general parental mortification.
Curran’s call-up to England’s Ashes squad as a replacement for Steve Finn was a bit of a surprise. Liam Plunkett was probably most people’s choice, a taller, quicker, more bracingly bearded fast bowler. Curran is 22 and has played just four white-ball internationals. He does, though, have an obvious competitive will, that primped and styled Surrey-boy aggression, with a run-up that is almost slightly comical in its trapped, puppyish rage, like a boyband Dominic Cork. Plus he’s got that way of aeroplaning off in whooping celebration that will no doubt win him a lot of vocal new friends in Australia.
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