For any all-rounder, the label “adaptable” is faint praise. It’s a familiar dilemma: their ability to contribute with both bat and ball leads to them being selected more often than if they were specialists, but they are often forced into roles they are ill-suited to by teams who use them to balance out their side.
Over the course of his T20 career, Curran has batted in 98 innings at positions 3-5, averaging 27.90 and a strike rate of 140.43; in a further 93 innings he has batted in positions 6-10, averaging just 15.98 and a strike rate of 124.97. With England set to announce their white-ball squads for September’s tour of Australia on Monday, the team faces a decision over Curran’s future: now is the time to back him or sack him.
“He’s been used so often in a position other than number 6 or 7,” said Tom Moody, Curran’s coach at Oval Invincibles. “Sometimes players like Sam are called ‘Mr Fix It’ because they’re good at everything. But when you’re constantly tweaking and changing that role, you never know where you stand… Sam, like all good players, likes responsibility.”
In 2015, England left Ben Stokes out of their World Cup squad after he was seeded at No. 8 in an ODI series in Sri Lanka. Paul Collingwood compared this to “telling Cristiano Ronaldo to play right-back”. Although Curran’s potential as a T20 batsman is less, it felt like a similar waste for him to be slotted at No. 7 and 8 in a role that doesn’t suit him.
Curran was voted the most valuable player in the men’s Hundred last week, both for his batting in the middle order and for his 17 wickets. He batted at positions 3, 4 and 5, generally coming in shortly after the powerplay and showing his new-found ability to clear the ropes consistently: he hit 17 sixes in the competition, bettered only by Nicholas Pooran.
