Sam Curran wants the opportunity to fill the vacancy left by Ben Stokes, but said he will not be putting pressure on himself to make a return to Test cricket.
Stokes’ sudden retirement leaves England looking for a new captain and a solution for how to balance the team for their next series, against Pakistan in August.
Curran played the last of his 24 Tests in 2021, featuring for England only in white-ball formats since then. But the 28-year-old would perhaps be the best option as a like-for-like replacement in Stokes’ role as a seam-bowling all-rounder.
Asked whether he would welcome the call, Curran told BBC Sport: “Yeah, of course. “But it’s one of those things where I just want to try to perform my best and whenever the time comes they decide whoever is going to replace Stokesy – playing for England is amazing and I’m a competitive guy.
“When I’ve got a ball or bat in my hand I just try to do my best, so we’ll see what happens.” The problem of Stokes’ absence was made apparent to England when he missed the second Test against New Zealand following an incident in a London nightclub. Without Stokes, they chose an extra specialist batter, omitted spinner Shoaib Bashir and fielded four frontline seamers. That could be a formation England repeat now Stokes has gone for good, though it does leave the team unbalanced – finding an all-rounder would allow for a five-man attack, including a spinner.
Surrey’s Curran would be an option at seamer, while spin-bowling all-rounder Rehan Ahmed has been in England’s squads for the three Tests this summer. Another spin-bowling all-rounder, James Coles, was on Friday called up to the England one-day squad for the first time. Curran said he and other players are aware of the speculation as to who will replace Stokes.
“It’s something you have to always deal with,” he said. “There’s no doubt, with Ben Stokes retiring there will be hype around it. “At the same time, I’m sure whoever comes in will do their best and try to get the focus on them, rather than on Ben. There’s no doubt he will be a big miss for England, and we’ll see how it goes. “There is a lot of noise on Stokesy retiring, but I don’t really want to put too much pressure on myself. Whatever happens over the next few weeks, my main thing is to try to contribute and win games for England, and what will be, will be.”