England’s allrounder success leaves balancing act no closer to resolution،
Is this really the problem? The bouquet of flowers and romantic evening after months of poor performance. Every all-rounder has his day, and it was today that Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone lured England into giving them an extra date.
England's dilemma is that two of the country's best eleven white-ball cricketers do not necessarily fit into the best eleven. Make no mistake, both Curran and Livingstone are fantastic cricketers and proved their worth today with three wickets which bowled out the West Indies for 202 and led to a well-deserved victory. Curran bounced back from conceding the worst ODI bowling figures ever by an England player on Sunday, to rip through the West Indies top order with a triple strike in the powerplay. Livingstone then came in to bat in the middle, broke the 129-run partnership that threatened to win the match and picked up two more wickets for good measure.
“It was great to see Livi bowling well,” Curran said at the end of the match, reinforcing the skills of his companion, who, whatever their friendship off the field, can find themselves at odds when trying to 'participate.
“We just try to do our best and whatever happens, happens. He's one of my good friends and we work hard together and train hard. I don't think we need too much of each other focus on that.”
But in the current balance of the team, the presence of Livingstone prevents England from facing a fourth player. Which, in turn, means that Curran, as one of three quick players, must play a full allocation despite being a borderline power play specialist. The presence of Livingstone weakens Curran's production. And with Curran's overs coming under greater pressure, that pressure also comes back to the need for Livingstone's overs. Two magnets moving away from each other.
The problem is that on days like today, both have shown that, at best, it can work. But the saying goes, “If you can’t love me at my worst, then you don’t deserve me at my best.” Not, “If you can live with me in my best days, you must also stay with me in my worst days.”
England has been here before. In the first round of the World Cup against New Zealand, they picked three seamers, Livingstone at seven and Curran at eight and were beaten heavily. A match later, Reece Topley was selected in place of Moeen Ali and England achieved a 137-run victory. Topley took four wickets. And Curran bowled just 7.2 overs.
This is the alternative that presents itself to England. With Gus Atkinson's first-class batting average of 28.14 at 11th, England could go for a fourth seamer and shuffle everyone around. Curran at seven, Brydon Carse at eight, Rehan Ahmed at nine. This is still an exceptionally deep batting lineup, which would also reduce the load on Curran's shoulders.
Why focus on Livingstone as a departure from this conversation? Because England already have a locked spinner in Adil Rashid (or Rehan Ahmed when he is unavailable) and Will Jacks can also provide off-spin overs. But until Rob Key dusts off Lewis Gregory's phone number or Ben Stokes' Lego knee is magically healed, there is no multi-tool to lighten the load. A seam bowling all-rounder in this team is currently more valuable than a spin bowler.
Additionally, Sam Curran was chosen as the vice-captain of the series. If this was new to you, don't be ashamed, it wasn't announced. But it nevertheless highlights that this is a player England want to build a team around.
“Jos mentioned before the show that if he wanted me to do it, it’s a great honor.” Curran said he found out about his promotion. “I feel more like a senior player in the team so it was a nice and proud moment. I also played a bit with Surrey recently. It's a great experience, just giving Jos some ideas here and there, but today was pretty much perfect for everyone.
“It's a label but it's been great and it was a nice feeling to say that to each other, but the most important thing was that we all played our own part in the way that we did, which was really exciting.”
Alternatively, Livingstone and Curran would say why can't they be the solution to their own problem? A unanimous conclusion from the ODI World Cup was that the gap between T20 and List A cricket was bigger than people thought. Whereas before, different musicians would give you different answers as to how far apart the two formats are, now they're all singing from the same limited hymn score.
“I haven’t played a lot of 50-over cricket,” Curran said. “I feel like a senior player in this group and I've played a bit more than the others, but it's a totally different format to the other formats.”
People learn on the job, and in Curran and Livingstone you have two cricketers with the talent to both be in the top seven, let alone the top eight. It's just that, here and now, both have ODI batting averages in the 20s.
“I've played different roles in the team, so I guess I'm just adapting to different types of roles,” Curran said, not buying into the idea that a top-six finish is where he dream. “I would love to continue to improve in all areas. I felt like I found a good place with the bat the other day, so that's a good sign. I know that at “In the future, I just want to be a lot more consistent in both facets of my game and hopefully I can fit in anywhere.”
The conundrum England must solve is whether they can turn Curran and Livingstone into the players they want them to be, or whether they must change Curran and Livingstone.
