Tuesday 28 February 2017 23:26, UK
Surrey bowler Tom Curran has been added to the England squad for the upcoming one-day internationals against West Indies.
The 21-year-old will act as cover for the injured Nottinghamshire seamer Jake Ball, who is due for a scan on a knee injury.
"It's all pretty surreal right now," said Curran, who has been with the England Lions squad in Sri Lanka.
"But I'm giddy, I can't wait to get out there."
Curran and his younger brother Sam have been key members of the Surrey attack over the last couple of seasons.
The duo took all 10 wickets in a Northamptonshire innings during a 2015 County Championship match and Tom Curran, who took seven of them, finished with 76 wickets that year as Surrey won Division Two.
He managed only 33 in last season's Division One campaign, at an average of over 45, but added another 20 in the limited-over competitions, where he also made useful contributions with his big-hitting lower-order batting.
Born in Cape Town, Curran qualified to play for England last year, and he impressed selector Angus Fraser while with the Lions squad, taking 3-35 and 4-38 on his way to 10 wickets at just under 19 in the two unofficial Tests against Sri Lanka A.
Curran got the news in the early hours of the morning, adding: "I woke up about half past four and saw I had a message from [national selector] James Whitaker on my phone.
"I thought I'd give it a quick read, and he'd be saying well done on the series, and I wasn't thinking very clearly at that time in the morning.
"But then I saw the words 'West Indies' and I was awake then, to say the least!
"I read it a few times, couldn't quite come to grips with it, trying to pinch myself to wake up. Put it this way, I couldn't get back to sleep. So, thanks again for the message, James!"
Sam Curran is also on the Lions tour and he was first to get the news.
Curran senior said: "I waited until 7, and he wasn't very pleased to be woken up. It's our first day off.
"But he understood when I told him, and he was as excited as me."
England's three-match series against West Indies gets underway in Antigua on Friday, before further matches on Sunday and Thursday.
Middlesex bowler Toby Roland-Jones, who played in the Lions' four-day matches in Sri Lanka but had not originally been selected for the one-day squad, will now stay in Sri Lanka for the five-match series, which starts in Dambulla on Thursday.
Meanwhile, opener Alex Hales was cleared after scans on Monday to join his team-mates, albeit merely to continue the latter stages of his rehabilitation after breaking his hand in India last month.
Assistant coach Paul Farbrace said of Hales: "He is very unlikely to play in the first game.
"I don't think he will figure in Antigua. He has a chance, if at all, [for the final match] in Barbados but he will have to work a lot to prove he is 100 per cent fit. There's no point in rushing him."
In Hales' anticipated absence, Kent's Sam Billings appears most likely to face the new ball alongside Jason Roy on Friday.
Watch the first ODI between West Indies and England live on Sky Sports 2, online and via mobile and selected tablet devices, on Friday March 3.
