Following his match-winning spell against Sri Lanka in the second ODI on July 1, Thursday, Sam Curran has been praised by England coach, Graham Thorpe.
The current England head coach, Graham Thorpe has given IPL the credit for Sam Curran’s brilliant performance with the white ball.
Apart from being useful with the bat, the 23-year-old has also been doing miracles with the ball consistently, including the highlights of the England series, claiming victory at Oval.
The left-hander bowled some serious spells against Sri Lanka in the second ODI to end up his fixtures on 5/48.
“I think it’s helped him enormously,”
Thorpe said of Curran’s IPL stint.
“Every environment Sam has gone into, he’s shown that ability to compete and an ability to find a way of putting performances in. From that perspective, playing in the IPL has put him in high-pressured situations and pushed him.”
Thorpe also believes that the young gun has a lot of cricket coming on the way and he can grow further to become a part of playing XI for England in all three formats, giving the example of Ben Stokes.
“His T20 cricket has progressed well, but I think establishing himself as a 50-over player as well is a really important part of it,”
Thorpe observed.
“He’s got to try and be in the mix as well for Test cricket. It sounds like quite a lot of cricket. As you know, with someone like Ben Stokes, the amount of work and fitness levels that are required for that is huge.
“So the challenge for Sam to be a multi-format cricketer is delivering that consistency as well for England time and time again. That’ll be one of the bigger challenges for Sam going forward. But that very much lies on his shoulders to do that,”
he added.
We know we’ve got a very exciting cricketer with us, and we just have to keep encouraging him to improve and keep getting better as a player all the time.”
With just a match left in the series, Thorpe is hopeful that the upcoming series against Pakistan would be potential in pushing things towards their side. Sri Lanka has produced a one-sided tour and he is hoping more from Pakistan.
“Potentially the Pakistan series could push us further,”
he said.
“The Sri Lankan bowling attack has been decent, but they’ve been weakened more on their batting side. I think Pakistan will be a team that’s further ahead in terms of experience and how they’ll be able to challenge as well. It’ll probably be a tougher contest.”
Thorpe also has eyes on the uncapped seamer, George Garton, who was picked for the Sri Lanka series could be in line to make his International debut.
“Like a lot of the players nowadays he’s got various slower balls, he’s got a bit of pace so he’s got a good bouncer on him. It’s the ability to deliver the accuracy of those variations as well, which is so important. That’s the exciting part of seeing and allowing a younger player.”
The final ODI will be played on July 4 at the County Ground in Bristol.