Sam Curran feels England are straining on the leash to start out the T20 World Cup however Reece Topley has emerged as an harm scare forward of their first match towards Afghanistan.
Topley rolled his left ankle on a bit of commercial foam on the boundary throughout some catching drills at Brisbane on Monday afternoon so he didn’t characteristic of their closing warm-up towards Pakistan.
England introduced Topley “will be assessed throughout this week” and are hopeful of a swift restoration, however they do have Tymal Mills and Richard Gleeson on standby if the difficulty proves to be extra severe.
It is an undesirable headache for England as they journey to Perth to tackle Afghanistan on Saturday, with Topley changing into an more and more reliable determine within the white-ball ranks for the reason that flip of the yr.
The 6ft 7in left-arm seamer has taken 17 wickets in 16 T20s in 2022 and may bowl anyplace in an innings, with an financial system charge of seven.8 spectacular given he operates primarily within the powerplay on the dying.
Curran and David Willey are England’s different left-armers of their 15-strong squad so they’re unlikely to this weekend threat Topley, who has overcome a number of stress fractures in his again throughout his profession.
Curran is anticipated to be in England’s XI towards Afghanistan, no matter whether or not Topley options, and believes they’re monitoring effectively after an enchancment in outcomes lately following a disappointing summer time.
England recorded a 4-3 win in Pakistan after which thrashed the identical opponents by six wickets in a low-key follow match on Monday, having additionally crushed World Cup hosts and defending champions Australia 2-0.
“We’re definitely ready now,” Curran stated. “We’re feeling like we’re almost not peaking but we’re playing good cricket, (as shown in winning series against) Pakistan and Australia then this game.
“We’re really excited, hopefully with a couple of good training sessions in Perth, come the weekend we’ll be good.”
Curran, who was dominated out of final yr’s World Cup a few weeks earlier than it bought beneath method with a stress fracture in his decrease again, had some success towards Australia bowling the 18th and twentieth overs.
Renowned for his behavior of being entrance and centre within the essential moments of a recreation, Curran demonstrated his all-round means with an unbeaten 33 off 14 balls towards Pakistan on Monday.
Moved as much as sixth within the order, one spot greater than the place he’s more likely to bat towards Afghanistan if he’s chosen, Curran confirmed he’s fairly adept on the ending position with a cluster of boundaries.
While batting in direction of the tip of an innings is thought to be one of the crucial tough features to excellent in T20 cricket, Curran revealed he takes his cues from these above him.
“It’s very challenging but it’s just a role you’ve got to enjoy,” Curran stated. “Guys like Moeen (Ali), (Liam) Livingstone, Harry Brook are experienced in that middle-over phase so they help me through it.
“You’ve got to train maybe in a certain way, (try to) predict what you’re going to face. You see the way Livi plays, he knows his role, he knows he’s going to come in and be attacking.
“There will be some days where it doesn’t work, some days where it does. We knew we could get something out of this game (against Pakistan) but the way we played was really impressive.”
While England go into the World Cup in buoyant temper after current outcomes, Curran warned towards complacency given the primary two days have already produced a few shocks, with Scotland upsetting the West Indies, the 2012 and 2016 champions, a day after Namibia shocked Asia Cup winners Sri Lanka.
“You take confidence from (winning) but at the same time, you’ve seen some of the results already at the World Cup,” Curran added. “It’s a T20 format, anything could happen.
“Afghanistan are a side that are extremely skilful, they’ve got a world-class players who can win you games by themselves. We know it’s going to be a really tough opening game.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk