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5 things about Tom Curran

Curran opens the Surrey bowling with his 19-year-old brother Sam

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Uncapped Surrey seamer Tom Curran has been added to England’s Ashes squad after Steven Finn was ruled out of the tour through injury.

Here Press Association Sport looks at five things you may not know about the 22-year-old.

Cricket runs in the family

Curran regularly opens the bowling for Surrey with his 19-year-old brother Sam – a left-arm seamer who has also been tipped to play for England in the future. Their late father, Kevin, played 11 times as an all-rounder for Zimbabwe and had notable spells with Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire. Even mum Sarah has attempted to get involved – Tom tweeted a picture of her in September dressed as Ben Stokes in full England kit for a “famous sportsmen” fancy dress night.

Music career on standby

In a recent Instagram post, Curran joked that he would become a musician if his cricket career didn’t take off. Curran joined Solid Steel Band for a lesson in the calypso art of playing the steel drums during the Royal London One-Day series against the West Indies. “Such a fun morning learning to play the steel drums with these legends and Royal London! Career if cricket doesn’t work out is sorted,” Curran wrote.

Calm under pressure

Plenty of English cricketers have wilted under the intense pressure of an Ashes tour down under, but Curran isn’t likely to be one of them. The all-rounder regularly bowls at the death in T20 cricket for his county, and produced a number of last-gasp match-winning displays in this season’s Blast as Surrey reached the quarter-finals. Essex needed 10 off his final over in a high-scoring group game at Chelmsford, but Curran took two wickets to seal victory for his side.

Brothers in arms

Tom and Sam became the first pair of brothers for 65 years to take all 10 wickets in a first-class innings when they ripped through Northamptonshire in 2015. In a season in which he took 76 County Championship wickets – the joint most by a Surrey bowler since Waqar Younis in 1991 – Tom took seven for 35, with Sam claiming the other three as Northants were bundled out for 110.

Brothers Tom and Sam Curran
Surrey’s Tom Curran and his brother Sam Curran (Mike Egerton/PA)

Blue is the colour

Curran supports Chelsea, so his England call-up is the second piece of good news in a week after the Blues’ victory over Manchester United at the weekend. Curran has posted several social media updates from Stamford Bridge – in one Instagram post where he is pictured walking out of the tunnel, Curran wrote: “Great day filming at the best football ground in the world! Deadline Day shenanigans????.”

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