England’s Sam Curran says that he is dreaming of playing in an international match against his older brother Ben who recently moved to Zimbabwe.
Ben, who at 28 is two years older than Sam, is aiming to play for the African nation and emulating their late father Kevin, who represented Zimbabwe in the mid-1980s.
After previously playing for Northamptonshire, Ben, who is an opening batsman, has his sights on being picked by Zimbabwe for next year’s Test match against England at Trent Bridge.
Asked about the prospect of facing his brother in such a contest, Sam, who is currently playing in England’s one-day international series in the West Indies, said: “I’d love to. It will be pretty weird, and I guess my mum will be pretty nervous if it does happen.
“It will be special with my dad and family history and stuff like that, and we will be incredibly proud of him. So, fingers crossed.
“The last 10-12 years, my dad would have been looking down on us playing. And, fingers crossed, Ben can walk out and open the batting at Trent Bridge against England, which will be pretty cool.”
Before touring England, Zimbabwe also play Afghanistan in two Tests, which could enable Ben to make his international debut.
The oldest Curran brother, Tom, has played 60 games for England across the three formats but has not been picked for an international since 2021.
Sam Curran played his last Test match in August 2021, before Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum took over as captain and head coach.
After Stokes’s injury ruled him out of the series against Sri Lanka last summer, Curran hoped that he would win selection as a replacement all-rounder. He contacted Rob Key, England’s managing director, to ask why he had been overlooked.
“I chatted a little bit with Keysy about a few things,” Curran said. “It was just natural as a player that you get disappointed. But I think the Test team’s got the players they have now and, you know, in 12 months’ time it could be totally different.”
Curran said that Key had made clear that England sought pace in their bowling attack. While Curran is a left-armer, he is only 5ft 9in and generally bowls around 80mph.
“There’s no question they’re looking for extra pace, this stuff, and I don’t think I’m going to bowl 90 miles an hour overnight. So I am just going to try my best. And I’m pretty happy just trying to win games for England.
“As a younger player, I got frustrated by these things; now I’m a bit older I feel like I know how it works in terms of balance of sides, what they are looking for.”
But Curran reiterated his desire to play for England in Test cricket again.
“It’s natural that I want to play all three formats,” he said. “I’d love to sit here in 10 years time and say I’ve played many, many games for England in all formats.”
England have won 16 of Curran’s 24 Test matches. He averages 24.7 with the bat in the format and has taken 47 wickets at 35.5 apiece.
Curran scored a crucial 52 in England’s series-levelling victory in Antigua on Saturday. Ahead of tomorrow’s decider in Barbados, he said that he felt like he learnt from his mistake in the first game, when he was caught on the long on boundary with 9.5 overs still remaining.
“After the first game, we spoke about how much time we had,” Curran said. “If we can win 2-1 it would be a big achievement for a young group.”
England captain Jos Buttler will not feature in the last ODI but again trained at Kensington Oval ahead of Saturday’s opening T20 game. The match looms as his first game in any format since June. – The Telegraph
