Sport works in strange ways. This has been a very good week for Sam Curran's standing as an international cricketer, for reasons that have very little to do with anything Curran himself has done. But there is an inevitable ripple effect when a player like Ben Stokes calls time on their England career, and Curran could benefit from Stokes' absence in two distinct ways.
The first is a long-awaited Test return. It is nearly five years since Curran played his last Test match, with injuries and financial incentives dragging him towards the white-ball game. But when Brendon McCullum spoke this week about the scarcity of "seam-bowling allrounders who can bat in the top seven", it was a reminder that Curran's skillset is hugely valuable.
The second is slightly less direct, but just as plausible. Harry Brook is the favourite to replace Stokes as Test captain and whatever Brook says, England's management have made clear that they consider leading across three formats to be unsustainable. Jos Buttler aside, Curran is the most experienced captain in England's T20 squad and would be a strong candidate to take over in that format, leaving Brook to focus on Tests and ODIs.
It is a far cry from the situation 18 months ago, when Curran was not picked to play for England in any format, let alone all three. He wondered aloud if his face didn't fit when he was overlooked for Test squads even when Stokes was injured, and that impression was only furthered when McCullum took over the white-ball sides and immediately sidelined him for the Champions Trophy.
Curran always maintained that he was confident of a recall, which duly arrived in September as a late replacement for the rested Ben Duckett. He immediately became indispensable in a set-up that was searching for balance: he has played 24 out of England's 25 white-ball matches since his comeback, and has become Brook's go-to T20 death bowler.
He was reluctant to talk himself up during his pre-match media duties in Manchester on Friday, but said that he would love the chance to return to Test cricket. "Of course," Curran told the BBC. "Playing for England is amazing, and I'm a competitive guy. When I've got a ball or bat in my hand, I just try to do my best, so we'll see what happens.
"There's no doubt, with Ben Stokes retiring, there will be hype around it. He's such a legend of the game, and someone who did so well. Whoever comes in eventually to take over his spot, there will be loads of stuff on it. At the same time, I'm sure whoever comes in will do their best and try to get the focus on them [rather] than Ben."
Curran is not England's only route to replacing Stokes in their Test team. At The Oval last month, they opted to pick an extra batter in Jordan Cox and relied on four frontline seamers plus Jacob Bethell and Joe Root's spin; alternatively, they could look at Rehan Ahmed or James Coles as a possible spin-bowling No. 7, but seam-bowling allrounders are thin on the ground.
Curran has only played 14 first-class games in four-and-a-half seasons since he was dropped by England's Test team, but the indication from them is that he has started to fulfil Alec Stewart's prediction that his batting would eventually overtake his bowling. In that time, he has averaged 46.05 with the bat (including his first two first-class hundreds) versus 29.38 with the ball.
He said on Friday that he feels like "a different cricketer" to the one who played 24 Tests between 2018 and 2021, bursting onto the scene against India before his performances faded. "I was very raw back in those days," Curran said. "It feels [like] a very long time ago, and I just feel a lot more experienced [now]... I'm not someone who wants to look too far ahead."
Curran only returned to bowling fitness last month after missing the IPL with a groin injury, though his initial comeback as a specialist batter earned him an unexpected public rebuke from Rajasthan Royals coach Kumar Sangakkara. He declined an opportunity to set the record straight on that subject, but his fitness to fill a fourth-seamer role in Test cricket is not completely clear.
He has only bowled 13 competitive overs since his injury, three of them in Wednesday's washed-out T20I series opener at Chester-le-Street. And he will not play another red-ball game before England's Test series against Pakistan begins on August 19, with white-ball cricket - including the Hundred, where he will captain MI London - filling his diary.
"You never know until you play," Curran said. "I'm just really excited to be back playing a full part bowling again. [It was] obviously a frustrating two-and-a-half months being injured. It was probably a nice time there - I always feel like I'm full-on - to sort my injury out, and a lot of rehab with the medical staff. I'm feeling good, and it's a long summer ahead."
Curran was similarly evasive on the prospect of taking over from Brook in either white-ball format, though has thrived as Surrey's T20 captain. "I do enjoy it, but right now I'm just enjoying the set-up," he said. "I just enjoy being back in the side; I obviously had time out of it, and it's been great…. Everyone's speculating, speculating; I think it's pointless, in a way."
It was hardly a rousing statement of candidacy, but Curran's old Surrey team-mate Morne Morkel - now India's bowling coach - provided an endorsement. "He's always confident," he said. "He's a guy that in tough situations, he wants the ball, he wants to step up, he wants to make the play. That's the X-factor that he brings… You need that character in your side."
Curran made repeated references to the "noise" around the England team on Friday and reiterated his focus on the white-ball series at hand. But if he performs to potential over the next three weeks, then the noise around him specifically will only grow louder.
