Ben Curran on his journey with Zimbabwe: 'Everyone's got their own path'

"If they weren't my brothers, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Ben Curran says. He's only half-right.

Perhaps if it wasn't for Sam and Tom, who have made headlines for the last decade, ESPNcricinfo would not have requested to interview Ben ahead of Zimbabwe's first Test in England in 22 years. But that's not the only reason. Ben is playing for Zimbabwe, the country of his father Kevin's birth, against England, the country of his and Sam's birth and the place where his family have significant sporting connections.

Kevin, who played 11 ODIs for Zimbabwe between 1983 and 1987, acquired English residency and played county cricket for Northamptonshire for eight years between 1991 and 1999. All three of his sons were born in that time: Tom in Cape Town, while Kevin was playing for Boland, and Ben and Sam in Northampton. By the year 2000, the family were all back in Zimbabwe, on the family farm halfway between Harare and Mutare, where Kevin began his coaching career. Initially, he was an assistant national coach, then had a stint in Namibia and at an academy before being given the main national job.

The brothers were 9, 8 and 6 respectively when Kevin was put in charge of Zimbabwe as head coach, in 2004. It was a time of intense upheaval in the country, both politically and in sporting terms. That same year, the Currans' farm was among those repossessed as part of Robert Mugabe's land reform program and 13 of Zimbabwe's white players staged a walkout over Heath Streak's sacking as captain and a broader protest over quotas. The Currans survived both events, moved home and Kevin continued coaching, even when Zimbabwe took a self-imposed exile from Tests in 2006.

Tom, Ben and Sam were too young to remember any of that in great detail but Ben knows that they were "always around cricket" and encouraged to enjoy it. "Whenever I see friends of my dad, they all tell me they remember me when I was knee-high. We were always there. He just wanted us to enjoy sport and if we wanted to work hard and practice a lot, he was there. He never said, 'This is what you have to do', it was up to us to decide if we wanted to go further.

All three brothers were lured away from Zimbabwe by a scholarship from Wellington School in Surrey, where they stayed even after Kevin passed away unexpectedly in 2012. He never saw his sons play professionally but their mother, Sarah, has been a constant presence. Three years after Kevin's death, Sam became the second-youngest player to represent Surrey in first-class cricket. Tom was already a regular in the team but Ben had to wait a little longer.

"I didn't have the immediate success my brothers did," he says. "It took me until I was a couple of years out of school to get myself the opportunity to play on a professional level but everyone's got their own path. It doesn't really happen that quickly for a lot of people. If I take myself out of it, I know that if they weren't my brothers, we wouldn't be having the same conversation. There's no timeline on anything and especially not in professional sport. Not everyone, not just in my family, but in general, has quick success. It just took me a little longer."

And unlike his brothers, Ben didn't have his success at Surrey either but there was a synchronicity with where he ended up. At the age of 22, he was signed by Northants, the same team his father had played for. That had the potential to heighten the pressure on him even more but he didn't let it. "As a professional, I distanced myself from the talk," he says. "It was a lot easier to try and just focus on performing myself."

"I definitely have an eye on the ODI World Cup. I'm playing in the 50-over side at the minute and I want to get myself into the T20 side. I actually played more T20 cricket in the UK. I definitely want to cement myself in all three sides"

Over the next four years, Ben played semi-regularly but did not have any breakout success. He averaged 25.82, never scored a hundred and, understandably, was never part of the national team conversation. Although eligible to play for England, without the numbers to back it up, he never seriously entertained the thought. "When I was playing county cricket, I was just trying to focus on performing there. I didn't really think too far ahead about what may or may not come."

Then, in 2022, he lost his contract and decided to return home and try again. "It was a conscious decision I made to go back and I obviously had ambitions to represent Zimbabwe," he says, aware of the challenges that would face him.

"The pitches are a lot slower and with the Kookaburra ball, there's not as much lateral movement, so it's about getting used to that, so they might have ring fields instead of more fielders behind the bat and a lot of more dismissals might be in front of the bat. It was about realising that there might not be as many scoring options, but you've got to find a way."

In what may be as much of an indicator of the difference in standards between England and Zimbabwe as of Curran feeling more comfortable in a familiar environment, in his first season, he averaged 41.77 in Zimbabwe's first-class competition and finished eighth on the run-charts. In his second summer, he was up to seventh and by the end of his third, Curran was the second-highest run-scorer in the Logan Cup, averaging 75.30, with three hundreds from seven matches.

It was during the last of those that he was also selected for Zimbabwe and made his international debut at Harare Sports Club, in an ODI against Afghanistan last December. A Test appearance soon followed, in the Boxing Day match in Bulawayo. Now Ben is all but a regular and sees himself that way. "It feels like I've been playing for a lot longer than just [since] December," he says.

It helps that he has performed relatively well. In his first Test innings, Ben scored 68 and in his sixth ODI, he raised his bat in celebration of a century to a jubilant crowd, who showed him the appreciation every international dreams of.

"What I have been trying to do is just stay really present and take it all in," he says. "I remember when I was on about 90-odd and we were in a good position in the game and I looked at the grandstand and everyone was singing and cheering. That was a standout moment, and made me appreciate where I am and what I'm actually doing."

Zimbabwe won the match against Ireland by nine wickets and Ben was there at the end to seal a series victory that could become the building block for the 2027 ODI World Cup, which they are co-hosting. Zimbabwe have not played at a 50-over World Cup since 2015 - and have been through two heartbreaking qualifying campaigns which saw them miss out - and see 2027 as an opportunity to underline their importance among the game's top nations. That includes being able to have some of the formats best players and Ben hopes to be among those, at least for Zimbabwe.

"I definitely have an eye on the ODI World Cup. I'm playing in the 50-over side at the minute and I want to get myself into the T20 side. I actually played more T20 cricket in the UK. I definitely want to cement myself in all three sides."

He played 23 T20s for Northants and scored three fifties with a strike rate of 126.84 but has only played 12 in Zimbabwe, and none for the national side. Whether that changes as they look towards the T20 World Cup Qualifiers remains to be seen. For now, their focus is on Tests and they are due to play 11 this year - as many as Australia and more than anyone else - in the hope of forcing their case for a World Test Championship spot.

A match against England, given its profile, puts the conversation centre stage and gives the players a brighter spotlight than usual. For Ben, it's about that and much more. There's a touch of sibling rivalry even though neither Tom nor Sam are playing. He expects both to be around the match and hopefully cheering for him. He also expects the comparisons to keep being made but is confident he is carving his own path in his own way. "I'm enjoying my cricket," he says. "The environment, where the guys and the team are in a good place and really wanting to take Zimbabwe cricket forward. I feel as though the timing is right for me."