Sam Curran eyeing England recall through strong IPL

Sam Curran is hoping to make a comeback to the England team and wants to use the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 as a platform to facilitate the same. The seam-bowling all-rounder has reunited with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as the five-time IPL-winning franchise acquired his services at the mega-auction last year for INR 2.40 crore.

Curran has played 24 Tests, 35 ODIs, and 58 T20Is for England since making his international debut in 2018. He won the Player of the Tournament award in the 2022 T20 World Cup after England went the distance in the global event. However, his last appearance for the national team came in November 2024 on the tour of the Caribbean.

Curran was ignored when England named their squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy. The European nation were ousted in the group stage and Jos Buttler relinquised captaincy. With Brendon McCullum taking over as England coach in all formats from the start of this year and a new white-ball skipper set to be announced shortly following Buttler's resignation, Curran is hopeful that plenty of opportunities will be up for grabs. He knows that a strong stint with the Super Kings could help him impress McCullum and get back in contention for a national team recall.

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"My main aim is probably just to get back into the (England white-ball) side. With England, I guess I've never really found that perfect role. In the Champions Trophy and the series in India (at the start of 2025), there was no hiding that they stacked the batting in terms of playing a lot of batters and those extra quicks. I feel like if I get my role right with England, I'll get back into it, who knows what will happen now. The cliché of (needing) runs and wickets is no debate, I've got to keep doing that," Curran told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

"I feel in a really good space. I was obviously gutted when it happened, but I'm still pretty young and feel like I have matured when it comes to handling the bad stuff. Being a bit more experienced, reading situations better, I really hope I can get back into the team. There is only one way (to do that), hopefully I can have a really good IPL and see where we are in the summer," he added.