Ashes 2017: Tom Curran called up to replace Steven Finn as Liam Plunkett and Mark Wood are overlooked
Surrey all-rounder is yet to win his first Test cap but his one-day international form has impressed enough for Trevor Bayliss to fly him out to Australia
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Your support makes all the difference.Tom Curran has been called up to England’s Ashes squad. The 22-year-old Surrey all-rounder will fly out to Australia in the next 24 hours as a replacement for Steven Finn, after the Middlesex fast bowler was ruled out of the rest of the tour with a torn left knee cartilage.
Curran is yet to play a Test match for England. However, he broke into the white-ball side during the 2017 season, making his debut in Twenty20 and one-day international cricket, and impressed the England management with his attitude.
Coach Trevor Bayliss is known to be a fan, and so Curran has been preferred to the likes of Liam Plunkett, Tom Helm, George Garton and Mark Wood as England seek to bolster their ailing pace-bowling reserves ahead of the toughest series of them all.
Given the unique demands of Ashes cricket on fast bowlers, history suggests that there is at least a decent chance that Curran will feature at some point during the series. It is also now likely that Curran will have to cancel his deal with the Hobart Hurricanes, with whom he had signed up to play in this season’s Big Bash.
Curran’s first-class record for Surrey last season was admittedly modest – 24 wickets at an average of 35 – but his record still compares favourably with the likes of Plunkett, who played just two County Championship games for Yorkshire last season, and Helm, who played just five.
Besides, Curran has been a consistent performer at Championship level over the last few seasons, and his fiery three-wicket international debut against South Africa at Taunton in June suggested that he is a player who relishes the biggest stage.
The luckless Finn will return to England within the next 48 hours after the freak injury he suffered while batting in the nets in Perth last Thursday. He will see a knee specialist to determine whether he needs surgery. Either way, it is a cruel twist of fate for a bowler who has only ever shown glimpses of his true potential, and whose last Ashes tour also ended in disappointment, flying home without playing any of the five Test matches.
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