Tom Curran is a South African-born English cricketer who represents Surrey in County cricket. His father was a former Zimbabwe International cricketer and his younger brother Sam Curran is also a regular member of the English Test team.
 
With impressive performance at the school level, in 2012, Tom got a chance to represent the Surrey second XI. With the skill-set and the talent that he had, Tom had the ability to consistently clock 140-plus kph away swinging deliveries. With pace to his fore, Tom Curran finally got selected in the England performance squad in September 2015 and in the next month, he completed his residential qualification for England.
 
Tom Curran has grown a lot and has a handy experience of more than 50 first-class games. He has matured with time and turned out to be a high-class performer. With the amount of domestic exposure that he had, in June 2017, Curran was finally drafted into the England national side for a T20I series against South Africa. His debut match was decent enough and everyone got impressed with his pace and guile.
 
Due to injuries to the preferred fast bowlers in the Test format, Tom Curran was selected for the 2017-18 Ashes and he also made his debut in Melbourne. Being a bowling all-rounder, although Tom did not find much success in the red-ball format, his ability to swing the ball and also contribute with the bat kept him in contention for the white-ball format. Believing in Curran's ability, England named him in their 2019 Cricket World Cup squad. 
 
Tom Curran was earlier a part of the Kolkata franchise where he replaced the injured Mitchell Johnson in 2018 but ahead of the 13th edition of the Indian T20 League, Rajasthan bought the quality English all-rounder for INR 1 crore.

Tom Curran

England all-rounder Tom Curran on Monday announced that he will not return to Australia to play in the Big Bash League (BBL) this year, citing the strains of ongoing biosecurity rules. &quot;It&#39;s been a very challenging year and I&#39;ve been in bubbles since July,&quot; Curran said in an open letter to fans of his team, the Sydney Sixers.&quot;I will hopefully be back for many years to come, recharged and ready to go again, but for now I just need some time, normality, see family and be home.&quot;Curran had spent two months in a biosecurity bubble in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- which hosted this year&#39;s Indian Premier League -- before travelling to his native South Africa for England&#39;s ongoing tour. The 25-year-old had been due to return to Sydney after Christmas, facing another two weeks in hotel isolation before he can rejoin the team.&quot;I feel very lucky to play for the Sixers, I have loved my time with you all over the last two seasons and I can promise you, this decision was not taken lightly,&quot; he said.Sixers general manager Jodie Hawkins said travel restrictions had taken a &quot;toll&quot; on players worldwide, adding &quot;we understand Tom&#39;s need for a break.&quot;Curran was the top wicket-taker last season for the Sixers, who are the defending Big Bash League champions. &nbsp; &nbsp;

The England all-rounder cited the strains of ongoing biosecurity rules as the reason for his decision

Thomas Kevin Curran

Women's Big Bash League 2020/21

Sydney Sixers

Tom Curran pulls out of BBL

England batsman Jason Roy has signed up with the Perth Scorchers for this summer&rsquo;s Big Bash League to strengthen their batting line-up.Fellow countryman Liam Livingstone would also return to the club. However, their arrival dates are yet to be confirmed as England will tour South Africa for a limited-overs series next month.&nbsp;England have not announced their squad for the South Africa tour yet.&nbsp;The Scorchers have also included pacers Joel Paris and Cameron Gannon in their 18-man roster, according to Cricket.com.au.Quite a few England players namely Dawid Malan, Tom Banton and Tom Curran have already confirmed BBL deals.&nbsp;Perth Scorchers BBL|10 squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Fawad Ahmad, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Cameron Gannon, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kelly, Liam Livingstone, Joel Paris, Kurtis Patterson, Jhye Richardson, Jason Roy, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Sam Whiteman.

English players’ arrival dates are yet to be confirmed as England will travel to South Africa for a limited-overs series in November

Jason Jonathan Roy

Thomas Banton

Jonathan Marc Bairstow

Big Bash League, 2020/21

Perth Scorchers

Jason Roy signs up with Perth Scorchers for BBL

Kolkata Knight Riders spent a total of INR 8 crore on India&#39;s Under-19 World Cup-winning members - Shubman Gill, Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti - in the 2018 auction and the trio, playing only their second IPL encounter together, took apart Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday (September 30). The investment is finally starting to pay dividends as the troika starred in all three facets of the game and propelled Kolkata to a 37-run win in Match No. 12 of the 2020 edition of the lucrative league.Asked to bat, Shubman Gill was once again amongst runs, scoring a 34-ball 47, studded with five fours and a six. Rajasthan however managed to pull things back in the middle overs before Eoin Morgan (23-ball 34*) chipped in with an important cameo to propel Kolkata to 174/6 in 20 overs. Having enjoyed batting in Sharjah, Rajasthan never looked in the game but Tom Curran (36-ball 54) managed to smash a half-century and got his team to a respectable total of 137/9 in reply.Having crafted a match-winning 70* against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gill looked in sublime touch from the word go and stamped his authority by clobbering Ankit Rajpoot down the ground for the first maximum of the match. The right-hander did most of the scoring in the first four overs, while Sunil Narine (14-ball 15) struggled to get bat on ball. The left-hander was 5 off 11 before he finally managed to break the shackles in the fifth over. Narine tonked Jaydev Unadkat for a six and a four but couldn&#39;t carry on as the left-arm seamer knocked him over with a superb slower delivery.Gill once again batted with great maturity and found a good ally in Nitish Rana who tried to up the ante after Kolkata managed only 42 in the powerplay. Shreyas Gopal and Riyan Parag failed to maintain the pressure after the end of six overs and allowed Gill and Rana to accumulate boundaries, pushing the run-rate over 8. Rana was outstanding through the off-side and played quite a few eye-pleasing cut shots. The two added 46 for the second wicket before Rahul Tewatia had Rana caught at long-off for 17-ball 22.Gill was scoring at a pretty good rate and he was doing it without taking unnecessary risks. The stylish opener was approaching towards his sixth IPL fifty when Smith brought Jofra Archer (2/18) back into the attack and the paceman from England did the job for his team by sending Gill back in the hut. Archer didn&#39;t stop there and also accounted for Kolkata captain Dinesh Karthik (1) in his next over.<img src="https://s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/image.cricket.com/temp%2F6a46268c203fe784913d861d219afbe3866c1b3a.jpg" style="width: 800px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" data-code="200">Andre Russell was promoted to No. 4 and the dasher from Jamaica took a couple of deliveries to get his eye in and then smoked Gopal for two maximums to make his intentions clear. The Rajasthan bowlers came with the ploy of bowling wide outside off to Russell and the move paid off as Rajpoot had him caught at deep backward point for a 14-ball 24. With just five frontline batsmen in the XI, the onus of getting Kolkata to a competitive total fell on the shoulders of Eoin Morgan.&nbsp;The ploy of playing seven proper bowlers, including Narine and Pat Cummins, didn&#39;t allow Morgan to play his natural game and the left-hander had to ensure he was there till the very end. There were occasional boundaries but it was in the final over where Morgan finally cut loose. The England white-ball captain accumulated 16 runs from his countrymate Curran&#39;s final over and got Kolkata past the 170-run mark.In response, Rajasthan needed Steve Smith (3) and Jos Buttler (16-ball 21) to get them off to a solid start but the former was uncharacteristic with his approach and started slogging from ball one. Smith tried to take on Pat Cummins who looked in great rhythm and was bowling thunderbolts. The Rajasthan skipper looked in hurry for some reason and ended up throwing his wicket away in the second over. There was no Sanju Samson (8) special either as the No. 3 batter fell to Mavi (2/20) in the fifth over. &nbsp; &nbsp;Rajasthan never looked in the game and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. After Mavi got the all-important wicket of Buttler, Nagarkoti (2/13) dismissed Robin Uthappa and Riyan Parag in his first over to kill the game. Playing only his second IPL encounter, it was a special moment for Nagarkoti who had to miss the last two seasons because of injury. Uthappa&#39;s wicket was his first in the IPL. Rajasthan were down and out before the end of 10 overs, and there was no miraculous effort from Tewatia (14) either. &nbsp;Curran however ensured Rajasthan weren&#39;t bundled out and smashed two fours and three sixes in his knock to reduce the margin of defeat. &nbsp;

Gill crafted a steady 47 before Mavi and Nagarkoti scalped two wickets each to propel KKR to a 37-run win

Shubman Gill

Eoin Joseph Gerard Morgan

Kamlesh Lachham Nagarkoti

Indian Premier League, 2020

Kolkata Knight Riders

Rajasthan Royals

Young guns fire as Kolkata topple Rajasthan

He hasn&#39;t played red-ball cricket in over a year but England allrounder Tom Curran says he has huge Test ambitions and is developing his skills to make a comeback.&quot;I&#39;ve definitely got huge Test ambitions still,&quot; Tom said in a joint video conference call with brother Sam, who is a part of England&#39;s Test set-up.&quot;It&#39;s a tough one because I&#39;ve been playing so much white-ball over the last few years. Without playing Championship cricket it is hard,&quot; said the 25-year-old.Tom, who has played two Tests for England -- both in the 2017-18 Ashes in Australia, hopes to feature in a five-day game alongside Sam.&quot;Over the last couple of years there was a huge focus on white-ball cricket with the ICC Men&#39;s Cricket World Cup 2019 and rightly so,&quot; he said.&quot;Now it&#39;s trying to get that balance between white and red-ball cricket and developing my skills and awaiting my chance. I&#39;ll keep training hard and try to take my chances when I can. It would be amazing to play Tests with Sam. That&#39;s definitely a huge ambition of ours.&quot;Accustomed to a life of non-stop cricket, Tom says the coronavirus enforced break has come as a &quot;shock to the system&quot; but he knows it is not the end of the world in the bigger scheme of things.&quot;It is strange to be honest. I think we play so much now, you&#39;re just used to rolling on from one thing to the next. Sport is a big part of our lives but in the grand scheme of things it is not the end of the world for us compared to some of the other things going on around the world,&quot; he said.&quot;For the last four or five years, it has been cricket non-stop, all the year round. I think for everyone to be stuck indoors and not playing is a shock to the system, everyone is missing it.It is a shock to all of us, players, people involved in the sport, fans and lovers of the sport. It is a shock to the system but what we&#39;re going through is nothing in the grand scheme of things.&quot;Tom said he is trying to utilize the time to be mentally and physically ready when play resumes.&quot;I&#39;m using it as a time to get refreshed mentally,&quot; said Tom, who was looking forward to turn up for the Rajasthan Royals in the 13th IPL, which has been indefinitely postponed following the extension of the lockdown to May 3 in India.It is a terrible time of course, but we seldom get a break like this in what would be the middle of our summer. We&#39;re trying to stay positive so that when we do come back we&#39;re in a good position to kick on mentally and physically for the years to come,&quot; he added.

Tom, who has played two Tests for England -- both in the 2017-18 Ashes in Australia, hopes to feature in a five-day game alongside Sam

Samuel Matthew Curran

England

Tom Curran still has "huge Test ambitions"

England allrounder Sam Curran said he still hoped to play under India great MS Dhoni in the Indian Premier League -- and get one over older brother Tom -- despite the coronavirus pandemic.Curran, 21, was the most expensive England player in November&#39;s initial IPL auction, being sold to the Chennai Super Kings, captained by Dhoni, for &pound;590,000 ($742,000) after a successful 2019 stint with the Kings XI Punjab.Meanwhile the 25-year-old Tom, also of Surrey and England, was signed by the Rajasthan Royals.But the spread of COVID-19 has led to the suspension of all major cricket worldwide.This year&#39;s IPL was meant to start on March 29 before being delayed until 15th April to coincide with the end of an initial Indian government lockdown.But with Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing an extension of the lockdown -- the world&#39;s biggest covering over 1.3 billion people -- until May 3, there is no certainty about when, or indeed if, the 2020 IPL will take place.&quot;No-one knows,&quot; Sam Curran told reporters in a conference call with Tom on Tuesday (14th April).&quot;It (the IPL) might happen this year, it might be cancelled, but we have to follow the government guidelines.&quot;Chennai are one of the IPL&#39;s most successful teams, having won the tournament three times before a dramatic one-run loss to Mumbai Indians in last year&#39;s final.&quot;I was very excited to move franchises,&quot; said Sam. &quot;Chennai is a great franchise with all the big names and I can&#39;t wait to play under MS Dhoni.&quot;Hopefully &nbsp;I will play against Tom, hit him everywhere and then hit his stumps.&quot;Dhoni exudes calm,&quot; added Sam, who said only Virat Kohli, Dhoni&#39;s successor as India captain, could rival him in terms of superstar status in cricket crazy India.&quot;Chennai is quite an older squad so there are quite a few legends who have made it in the game,&quot; said Sam.&quot;Hopefully they will be looking to give tips to the younger players, so that&#39;s something I&#39;m really looking forward to.&quot;Sam had been preparing for a &quot;massive&quot; three-month stint in Asia after being selected for England&#39;s tour of Sri Lanka, which was abandoned before the start of the Test series.Tom insisted, however, the lack of cricket was &quot;nothing in the grand scheme of things&quot; even though it was a &quot;shock to the system&quot;.Sam added: &quot;But you have to appreciate the time off is quite refreshing.&quot;Hopefully I&#39;m not one of the players who has let themselves go and comes back for the county season 10 kg too big.&quot;The lockdown has seen several England players involved in charity initiatives, with Sam having raised nearly &pound;10,000 for Britain&#39;s National Health Service, although he downplayed his efforts by saying &quot;the smallest thing we can do is raise some money for the NHS&quot;.The Currans live separately from one another and Tom, asked if he was missing seeing Sam, replied: &quot;Nah, nice break. Only joking, of course I&#39;m missing the man.&quot;When cricket resumes the brothers, the sons of the late Zimbabwe allrounder Kevin Curran, hope to fulfil a &quot;dream&quot; by following their Surrey predecessors Adam and Ben Hollioake as siblings playing Test cricket in the same England side.Sam has played 17 Tests to Tom&#39;s two.Right-arm seamer Tom said: &quot;It would be amazing to play Tests with Sam, that&#39;s definitely a huge ambition of ours.&quot;Sam added: &quot;As Tom said, it&#39;s a dream.&quot;&quot;Any game you play for England is obviously a great privilege but I think playing with your brother or a member of your family gives it that extra special feeling.&quot;

Curran, 21, was the most expensive England player in November's initial IPL auction, being sold to the Chennai Super Kings, for £590,000 ($742,000)

Sam Curran 'can't wait' to play under Dhoni amid virus threat

England, the ODI world champions, are all set to play their first game in the format after the global event. Hosts South Africa have not played an ODI themselves since their dismal run at the World Cup. While England have a lot of match-winners in their squad, South Africa have opted to give a look-in to a few youngsters. &nbsp;England demolished South Africa in the Test series beating the hosts 3-1. The World Cup winners will look to carry forward their good form as the tour enters the white-ball phase, starting with a five-match ODI series.&nbsp;South Africa and England have faced each other 60 times in the 50-over format. The hosts have the lead here having won 29 encounters while 27 have gone to England. Three encounters were abandoned while one match ended in a tie.&nbsp;Weather and Pitch ConditionsThere are clouds hovering around in Cape Town on matchday, but rain should stay away from the contest. The temperature is expected to hover around the 18-27 degree Celsius range on average.&nbsp;Newlands has hosted six ODIs since the start of 2016. It has been the third highest scoring ground in South Africa from the venues that have hosted a minimum of five ODIs in this period. The batsmen have an average of 35.8 runs/wicket here while a wicket has fallen every 37.5 deliveries. Hence it is advisable to fill your squad with batsmen and all-rounders for this match.<iframe src="https://e.infogram.com/755601d3-9055-42a8-a1ba-ea8a2571a68b?src=embed" title="ODIs in SA - Bowling" width="550" height="700" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none;" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>Team CombinationOn the bowling front, pacers have enjoyed this venue more than spinners. While spinners have picked up a wicket every 45.5 balls since January 2016 here, pacers have a strike rate of 37.3. Among the venues with minimum five ODIs since 2016, this is the second worst ground for spinners in South Africa.&nbsp;Diving into the different bowler types, left-arm pacers and leg-spinners have been the most effective here. The duo have returned a wicket every 27.1 and 37.2 deliveries respectively in ODIs since the start of 2016. Right-arm pacers too have been excellent here with a strike-rate of 39.5. In the absence of Kagiso Rabada, Beuran Hendricks will take up the mantle to be South Africa&rsquo;s pace spearhead. From England, leggies like Adil Rashid and Matt Parkinson can be good picks depending on who plays in the XI. Also, after an impressive Test series, Sam Curran might be given a chance in the ODIs and can be a good pick if selected in the XI.A combination of six frontline batsmen including the wicket-keeper, two all-rounders and three bowlers could be the way to go for this game.Suggested CaptainFor the second straight white-ball series after the 2019 World Cup, Quinton de Kock has been appointed as the captain of South Africa. One of their best white-ball batsmen, de Kock was in sublime form in ODIs in 2019. Scoring 774 runs in 17 innings at an average of 48.4, de Kock is highly likely to fire again as South Africa plan to rebuild the team around him. Additionally, with the fantasy points he is likely to provide due to his dismissals as a wicket-keeper, he is an ideal candidate as the captain.X-FactorsOur first x-factor, Jason Roy&nbsp;was the lynchpin of England&rsquo;s batting during the triumphant World Cup campaign. A swashbuckling opener, Roy has scored 845 runs in 2019 at an average of 70.4 and a strike-rate of 118.2. Adept to play a long innings at the top of the order, Roy is capable of changing a match by himself.Our second X-factor is Rassie van der Dussen. The middle-order batsman had the highest batting average for South Africa in 2019, the year in which he scored 664 runs at an average of 73.8. He was also the second highest run-getter for South Africa in the 2019 World Cup. From a depleted South Africa squad, van der Dussen is a must pick. &nbsp;&nbsp;Based on current form,&nbsp;Tom Curran, our third x-factor should find a place in your fantasy XI. Playing for the Sydney Sixers, Curran was a star performer in the Big Bash League with contributions with both bat and bowl. In 14 BBL matches this season, Curran scalped 22 wickets and scored 133 crucial runs. Playing six ODIs in 2019, Curran scored 107 runs at an average of 35.7 and took nine wickets at 29.6 balls per wicket. He is highly likely to find a place in England&rsquo;s XI and should find a place in your fantasy XI too.Suggested Fantasy XIQuinton de Kock (c), Jason Roy (vc), Rassie van der Dussen, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Reeza Hendricks, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Tom Curran, Adil Rashid, Beuran Hendricks

Here are a few tips that will help you in creating your fantasy team for the first ODI between South Africa and England at Cape Town

Tom Curran

Debut

Player Bio

Tom Curran in News

Tom Curran pulls out of BBL

Jason Roy signs up with Perth Scorchers for BBL

Young guns fire as Kolkata topple Rajasthan

Tom Curran still has "huge Test ambitions"

Sam Curran 'can't wait' to play under Dhoni amid virus threat

South Africa vs England, 1st ODI, Cape Town: Fantasy Preview