Sam Curran: A star is born

Sam Curran is only 20 and he’s done what the stalwarts of the game have failed to do, helping England win Border Gavaskar Trophy 2018 by the scruff of the neck. This series belonged to the English all-rounder as he announced himself to the world.

Player of the Series

Curran (20y 59d) became the second youngest cricketer to score 250+ runs and pick 10+ wickets in a series, second only to India legend Kapil Dev (19y 329d) who achieved the feat against West Indies back in 1978/79 (329 runs + 17 wickets). The all-rounder was adjudged England “Player of the Series” for his exploits.

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Curran set the tone for the series in the first Test at Edgbaston, scoring an exhilarating counter-attacking half-century after a 4-fer to bundle India cheaply. The youngster stepped up to give England the edge and that proved to be the difference in the end. Two tests later, Curran frustrated India again with gritty knocks of 78 & 46 to help England win the game.

Congratulations, @englandcricket on winning the Test series. #AlastairCook, wishing you an even better post-retirement innings. #SamCurran has been the standout player of this series. Smart thinker. #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/gy4Aqg3onT

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 12, 2018

Kohli, Root in awe

Indian captain, Virat Kohli was all praise for the youngster after the end of the final Test, he said ” he [Sam Curran] attacked with the bat and with the ball, and made important contributions. It takes the character for someone to come in and play like that. He put England in front in those important Test matches.”

Earlier, Joe Root had called Curran a cricketer with “a great amount of skill, very exciting and promising prospect.” He lauded Sam Curran’s outstanding effort saying, “Not just in one game, but throughout the series, for a young guy to have that influence on three games is outstanding.”

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It would be right to call this series his breakthrough and looks like he has all the assets to make a top all-rounder. Plenty of cricketers have a big international moment early on in their careers, the question is whether he can continue to produce similar performances in the future?

Read: Indian cricketers who got to their maiden 100 with a six