England add 21-year-old Tom Curran in the ODI squad for the West Indies tour

In the early hours of Friday morning 21-year-old, Tom Curran got a surprise that quite literally jolted him out of sleep. He was in Sri Lanka playing for the England Lions as they played four-day games against Sri Lanka A and was notably successful picking 10 wickets with an average of 19. Curran checked his phone after his sleep was interrupted in the middle of the night and found an email from England’s national selector, James Whitaker that he was called-up in the England ODI squad for the West Indies tour.

Jake Ball who featured in the team on the tour of India suffered a knee injury and thus the selectors decided to give the youngster a promotion after he had done well in the home tri-series against Pakistan A and Sri Lanka A as well as in the bilateral series against hosts Pakistan A in the UAE before his exploits in Sri Lanka.

“I woke up about half past four and saw I had a message from James Whitaker on my phone,” Curran was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “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!” He said.

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In all the excitement he waited for a few hours but at 7 finally decided to wake up his younger brother Sam Curran who is also a part of England Lion’s touring party in Sri Lanka. “I waited until 7 and he wasn’t very pleased to be woken up – it’s our first day off,” Tom said. “But he understood when I told him, and he was as excited as me.”

Talking about his bowling in the summer leading to his selection the youngster said, “I’ve felt in a good place with the ball over the last few months which is where you want to be – and to get a few wickets in the four-dayers,” Curran said.

“It’s happened as quick as a text. I wasn’t expecting it straight after the four-dayers. It’s all pretty surreal right now. But I’m giddy, I can’t wait to get out there.” He said as he left for the airport to fly all the way to the Caribbean and join the England senior team for the very first time.