Tom Curran boosts England World Cup bid with group of seamers fighting for few spots
"I'm against the clock a little bit. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried," says England seamer Mark Wood about World Cup selection
Wednesday 24 October 2018 18:04, UK
England could be forgiven for viewing their one-day international series in Sri Lanka as a nuisance.
It rained - it rained a lot - while Jonny Bairstow picked up an ankle injury playing football that has cast doubt on his participation in the Test series, albeit that England coach Trevor Bayliss has since eased concerns on that front, saying he is hopeful the Yorkshireman will play "a big part".
The inclement weather has also left the tourists' middle order short of a hit - Jos Buttler facing just 27 balls across the five matches - with the first ODI washed out, the third reduced to a 21-over-a-side thrash and the other three won on DLS.
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Sky Sports' Nasser Hussain questioned the wisdom of staging a tour during Sri Lanka's monsoon season. "It's ridiculous," he said while stood under a rain-peppered gantry during last Saturday's fourth ODI in Kandy.
"It's not on sending professional cricketers around the world to sit in hotel rooms to watch it rain."
What England may have taken from the trip, though, is that their bowling resources ahead of the next year's World Cup on home soil are well stocked, despite a much-changed attack being clobbered for 366 in Colombo on Tuesday as the tourists' suffered their heaviest ODI defeat.
Tom Curran may not yet have inked himself into England's World Cup XI but he must be pretty close to pencilling himself into the final 15 having showcased his variations and death-bowling acumen after coming into the side for the final three games of the 3-1 series win.
Having missed out on selection for the first two matches - England opting for triple spin with Liam Dawson supplementing regulars Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid - Curran returned for the third after Dawson was ruled out with a side strain.
The Surrey seamer went on to take 3-17 in the shortened fixture in Kandy, ousting Niroshan Dickwella, Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal with his pace-off deliveries and conceding just three runs in the final over as Sri Lanka were limited to 150-9.
Even on Tuesday, when Sri Lanka's batsmen finally got into the groove, Curran foxed Chandimal and Thisara Perera with his slower-ball bouncer, resulting in the pair being caught in the deep from successive deliveries and Hussain proclaiming that England may have found their death bowler.
They may have found a searing seamer, too.
Olly Stone's maiden ODI series tailed off a tad with the Warwickshire player taken for 50 from seven overs in the fourth game and rotated out of the side for the fifth fixture, but his blistering bouncer to dispatch Dickwella in the second contest in Dambulla, coming during a particularly speedy spell, showed what sort of weapon he can be.
Stone opened the bowling with Chris Woakes during the series but would also appear the most logical replacement for Liam Plunkett as first-change, hit-the-deck-hard bowler should the 33-year-old encounter any injury strife at the World Cup. It was Plunkett getting married, of course, that earned Stone his spot in the line-up in the first place.
Mark Wood used to be the man bringing express pace to the England ODI side - you only have to look back to the working over he gave David Warner at the MCG in January for an example - but his speed has slipped in recent times due to a catalogue of injury problems.
Wood's only action in the series came in the dead-rubber in Colombo, the Durham man returning figures of 0-55 from eight overs and, speaking before that game, he said he knows he faces an almighty fight to make England's World Cup squad.
"In my mind, you've got one spot [in the XI] between me; Tom Curran, who feels he has got his slower ball back; Olly Stone; who bowls rockets and is ahead of me at the moment; Sam Curran, who can bat; and David Willey, who had a good summer," he said.
"Liam Plunkett is going to play, he's been our best bowler for a while. Chris Woakes has been so consistent, he is a great bowler and is going to take the new ball. And Ben Stokes balances the team.
"I'm against the clock a little bit," added Wood, who averages 48.50 with the ball in his 35 ODIs to date. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about it.
"I've just got to prove myself and get better. And if I can do that, hopefully I should get my spot back."
Wood's assertion appears shrewd. Woakes is the leader of the attack - his highlight in Sri Lanka was torpedoing the home side's top order in game two in Dambulla with three wickets inside five overs - while Plunkett has bagged 76 wickets in 45 games since the 2015 World Cup. And Stokes is, well, Stokes. A shoo-in - provided he doesn't overdo himself in training!
The name Wood mentions who wasn't out in Sri Lanka is Willey, who has been suffering from a back injury, but after a home ODI summer in which the all-rounder played some valuable knocks with the bat and claimed 12 wickets in eight games against India and Australia, he seems set to be England's left-arm option, with Eoin Morgan suggesting Sam Curran remains very much back-up for now.
"If we're going to be serious about considering [Sam Curran] as a potential replacement if David is injured, we needed to know more about him," said Morgan after the final ODI, in which the 20-year-old went wicketless and scored two with the bat. "He needs games under his belt."
In Colombo on Tuesday, the Currans became the first brothers to play in the same England game since Adam and Ben Hollioake, also against Sri Lanka in 1999, but will they both figure in England's World Cup party?
If Plunkett, Woakes and Stokes are cast-iron certainties, that leaves one spot in the team and probably two in the squad for seam bowlers, with England likely to round off their 15 with a back-up batsman and possibly a further spin option.
Five contenders. Three places. It's not only Wood for whom the clock is ticking.
Which seam bowlers would you pick in England's World Cup squad? Let us know on Twitter @SkyCricket or in the feedback form below (skysports.com only).
England return to action in Colombo on Saturday for a one-off Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka. Watch live from 2pm on Sky Sports Cricket (channel 404).
