Further evidence that England’s plans have parted company with the rails is hardly needed but Tom Curran’s debut in the Boxing Day Test provides it nonetheless. Back in the summer, the stated intention was that England should not get into the situation in Australia where a player was being called on who had not previously played Tests. First we had Craig Overton in Adelaide, now Curran in Melbourne. The argument that an away Ashes Test is an unreasonably stiff challenge for any newcomer has merit, although as it happened neither Overton nor Curran appeared fazed by the occasion. Any observer watching this series without knowing the backgrounds of the players would have been hard-pressed to pick these two out as having no previous experience of…

Source: The Times December 26, 2017 08:03 UTC