England’s stand-in coach Graham Thorpe reckons playing in the IPL has enormously helped Sam Curran. Thorpe believes that Curran has been put in high-pressure situations in the Twenty20 tournament, which has helped him grow at the International level.
The youngster came up with a match-winning performance in the second ODI against Sri Lanka on Thursday as he scalped his maiden five-wicket haul in the 50-overs version. Curran returned with figures of 5-48 and he was awarded as the Player of the match for his impressive bowling show.
On the other hand, Curran has impressed while playing for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. The franchise didn’t have a great run in IPL 2020 but Curran was one of the biggest positives for them as he had scored 186 runs in 11 innings and also scalped 13 wickets in 14 matches for the MS Dhoni-led team.
“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.”
Meanwhile, Thorpe feels Curran still has a lot to do to be consistently part of the playing XI in all the three formats of the game for England.
“His T20 cricket has progressed really 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. 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.”
England have won all the five limited overs matches against Sri Lanka. The third ODI will be played on 4th July at County Ground Bristol.
