India vs England: Tracing Sam Curran's precocious rise in cricket, the left-arm sensation with maturity beyond his years

Former England captain and now the director of cricket at Surrey, Alec Stewart described Sam Curran as the best 17-year-old cricketer he had ever seen. It is high praise from a man that played 117 Tests and has been around the cricketing circles for over three decades. Sam is now 20 and, playing in just his second Test match, he may have a long way to develop. But, the early signs are that he is something special. In just his second Test match, Sam decimated the Indian batting with his left arm swing bowling. At the end of the second day’s play, he called his experience ‘unreal’. But the talented all-rounder has had to fight adversity since he lost his father when he was just 13 years of age. Kevin Curran played 11 Tests for Zimbabwe in the 1980s and has been one of the prime reasons for his son’s rapid rise to the top. [caption id=“attachment_4883361” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] England’s Sam Curran celebrates taking the wicket of India’s Hardik Pandya. Reuters[/caption] Growing up in their backyard in Zimbabwe, Sam, the youngest of three siblings, would be constantly competing against his older brothers and his father. One man that had seen him right form his day as a toddler was former England player Allan Lamb. “He has always been a confident kid since he was 4-5 years of age,” Lamb said. “He could play tennis left handed or right handed. He could pick up any ball sport… he seemed to just take to it naturally. A lot of credit should go to his father because he practiced very hard with both of his kids in their backyard in Zimbabwe.” In 2004, when the Curran family was evicted from their farm in Zimbabwe by the Robert Mugabe regime, Sam along with his three brothers had to move in with the Geoff Marsh’s family, who was then the Zimbabwe cricket coach. It was in his backyard that the Curran kids – Sam and his older brothers Ben and Tom, would be constantly playing cricket with Shaun and Mitch Marsh. As he developed his love for cricket, Sam would end up at one of the prestigious schools in Harare. It was here that his cricketing talent was nurtured. But just as his cricket was prospering, his father passed away, leaving his mother to take care of the three children. Luckily, Lamb along with former Test cricket and the brother of the late Tony Grieg, Ian Grieg managed to convince Tom to move to England, but Sam would remain with his mother. “His brother (Tom) was at Wellington College. I told their mother that Sam has to come as well, but she was a working mother and didn’t have the money.” Lamb said_._ “So, I went to the college and told them I have two extremely talented cricketers, Sam and Ben. I told them their background and they trusted me and accepted them. Since then, they keep asking me to let them know if there are more boys like them,” he added. Sam was picked up by Surrey at the tender age of 17, making him the second youngest debutant. He went on to take eight wickets in the match and caused mayhem with his later inswingers. Kumar Sangakkara played in the first season alongside Sam at Surrey. Commentating on Sky Sports, Sangakkara revealed how he had found Sam to be a shy young man who had enormous talent.

According to those in county cricket, it is Sam’s whippy action and beautiful seam position that make his deliveries rush on to the bat. His bowling speed rarely crosses 80 mph, but with such a whippy action and release, he has the ability to unsettle high-quality batsman.

On Day 2, he dislodged a well-set Murali Vijay with a sharp inswinger. Shikar Dhawan was late to react to his outswing and edged one to the keeper. KL Rahul was so keen on laying bat on to his inswinger that he poked at the outswinger with no footwork and dragged it back on to the stumps. While Hardik Pandya’s bat was still behind his front pad as the gentle inswinger hit him flush on his toes. It was a crafty bowling display. At the end of the day’s play, Sam spoke about what it was like playing with his childhood heroes James Anderson and Stuart Broad. He talked about bowling to Kohli and company, players that he had grown watching on TV only three or four years ago. So, was he nervous? “No, not really, I was nervous during my first Test, but today I just felt like I was at the Oval bowling for Surrey,” Sam said. In two Tests, he has shown maturity beyond his years. There is still plenty of learning but he will get stronger and might add another yard of pace, but for now, he is happy with what he has. If he continues to perform at the highest level, no one will be raising their eyebrows at Stewart’s bold statement anymore saying, “He is the best 17-year-old cricketer I’ve seen”.