Tom Curran, a waspish and persistent seamer, and useful lower middle order batsman, won England honours in 2017 when he played for England in three Twenty20 internationals and made an ODI debut against South Africa and immediately marked him down as a committed performer who relished the international stage.

He also gained a healthy habit of answering emergency call-ups to England squad abroad. He was asleep on an England Lions tour to Sri Lanka when he was summoned to a limited-overs tour in the West Indies as cover for Jake Ball, having taken 10 wickets in two A Tests in discouraging conditions: he failed to get on the field. It was another injury, this time to Steve Finn, which saw England's selectors on the phone again, this time with the invitation to pack for England's 2017/18 Ashes tour.

Curran had a sterling season for Surrey in 2015 as they won promotion back to Division One of the Championship and finished as runners-up in the NatWest Blast. The Curran brothers were one of the cricketing stories of the summer and by the end cricket fans knew that Tom was the elder one with the ponytail, showing reliability beyond his 20 years. The ponytail did not last long: Alec Stewart, his stickler of a coach at Surrey, persuaded him to get rid of it before the photographers recorded the young player of the year awards that followed.

Curran took most wickets in Division Two, 76 - the same number as Mark Footitt, who won a call-up to England's tour of South Africa - and bowled most overs. The campaign saw him miss just one game, claiming 105 wickets in all three formats with two seven-wicket hauls against Gloucestershire and Northants - counties for which his late father Kevin played. His 76 Championship victims equalled Joey Benjamin's effort in 1994 for Surrey, joint best since Waqar Younis claimed 113 in 1991.

He found things tougher the following year as Surrey stepped up to Division One, taking on the workhorse role - his hunched run-up might have been designed for it - and also not spending as much time on his batting as he would have wished to maintain his claims to be a genuine allrounder. England Lions were interested in both him and his younger brother Sam, selecting both for a 2016 tour to the UAE.

Having grown up in Cape Town, Tom Curran was spotted by former Surrey captain Ian Greig while playing schools cricket. He was invited to play Second XI cricket for Surrey in 2012, at the age of 17, and took 5 for 21 against Kent in his second game. He also began at Wellington School in September 2012. A month later, tragedy struck when his father, the former Zimbabwe cricketer Kevin, died suddenly. But Curran decided to remain at Wellington, helped by the school offering his two younger brothers the chance to study there too.

Surrey observers were immediately struck by his talent. Fast and generating away swing, former coach Chris Adams even fancifully likened him to Dale Steyn, although he was more robust and not as fast. He took 5 for 34 against Scotland in a one-day game in 2013, but had to wait until 2014 to get his first-class chance in a Surrey attack brimful of pace pedigree. He immediately justified the hype, and also managed the transition between first-class and T20 cricket with astonishing ease for a teenager. The only disappointment was that he failed, in limited opportunities, to show his considerable promise as a batsman. While injury limited his breakthrough season to seven first-class games, Curran had already established a reputation. Tellingly Ireland, for whom he is eligible to play, tried to persuade Curran to declare for them without success.
ESPNcricinfo staff