Tom Curran

By the time Tom Curran turned 30, it had been nearly four years since his most recent appearance for England and it was hard to envisage him ever playing for them again. Although a regular on the franchise circuit, Curran's star had faded. After breaking into international cricket as a young age - he won caps in all three formats at 22 - a combination of injuries and inconsistency meant that he fell out of favour with England's selectors. It felt unlikely that he would add to the 60 appearances he made between 2017 and 2021.

Curran, the older brother of Ben and Sam, had a breakout summer for Surrey in 2015 as they won promotion in the County Championship and reached the final of the Royal London Cup. A seam-bowling allrounder who quickly developed a reputation as an excellent death bowler in white-ball cricket, he also took the most wickets in Division Two with 76, and was soon added to the England Lions set-up. Having grown up in Cape Town, he was spotted by former Surrey captain Ian Grieg while playing school cricket, had a successful trial, and soon started at Wellington School. A month later, tragedy struck when his father - the former Zimbabwe player 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.

England came calling in 2017: he won his T20I cap against South Africa in June, made his ODI debut against West Indies in September, and soon found himself drafted into the Ashes squad when Steven Finn went down injured. He made his Test debut at the MCG and celebrated wildly when he thought he had dismissed David Warner, caught at mid-on for 99, only to discover he had overstepped. Warner was reprieved and Curran finished the day wicketless, eventually claiming Steven Smith as his maiden victim the following morning. His second - and final - Test cap came the following week in Sydney.

Curran always appeared more likely to thrive with the white ball, a sense only underlined with a nerveless spell of 5 for 35 in Perth to close out a narrow win in the one-day series that followed the 2017-18 Ashes. He remained on the fringes of the international set-up and snuck into the England squad for the 2019 World Cup at David Willey's expense, though his only appearances were as a substitute fielder. His progress stalled, and after another non-playing role as an unused squad member at the 2021 T20 World Cup, he fell out of favour completely, prompting a shift towards the franchise circuit - including multiple IPL deals.

A pair of back stress fractures hampered his progress, and he briefly quit first-class cricket in 2023 before reversing his decision to play a walk-on role in Surrey's 2024 Championship title. He was also a key part of Oval Invincibles' three successive Hundred wins from 2023-25, gradually turning himself into a destructive lower-order finisher who could be considered a genuine allrounder.

A feisty competitor with a propensity to get fired up, Curran is no stranger to controversy. He was banned for four BBL matches in 2023-24 after being found guilty of "intimidating" an umpire during a pre-match argument, and is regularly reminded by Somerset fans of the time he labelled them "a bunch of peasants".