Swinging Sam a rare find for England

Rookie left-armer Sam Curran’s spell of swing bowling on day two of the first Test at Edgbaston was as superb as it was rare for England.

Curran ripped apart India’s top order with three wickets in eight balls to reduce the tourists to 3-59 before Virat Kohli’s maiden Test century on English soil lifted the total to 274.

Curran, 20, finished with figures of 4-74 from 17 overs, and while those figures are solid if not remarkable, what is astonishing is the dearth of left-arm fast bowlers England have produced in 141 years and 1000 Tests.

Since the turn of the century, only three left-arm quicks have played for England; Ryan Sidebottom (22 Tests), Allan Mullally (two) and Curran (two).

England’s Ashes rival, Australia, have selected five left-arm pacemen since January 1, 2000; Mitchell Johnson (73 matches), Mitchell Starc (43), Doug Bollinger (12), Nathan Bracken (five) and allrounder James Faulkner (one).

In fact, no England southpaw speedster has captured 100 Test wickets – Bill Voce, who played 27 Tests including the 1932-33 Bodyline series in Australia, is England’s most prolific left-arm quick with 98 wickets.

Australia have four lefties with more than 100 Test scalps; Johnson leads the way with 313, ahead of Alan Davidson (186), Starc (182) and Bruce Reid (113).

Curran made his Test debut against Pakistan at Headingley last month, the first English quick given a fresh cap since Sidebottom’s maiden Test against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2001.

England could well have used a left-armer last summer when their fast bowling unit made up entirely of right-armers was punished by Australia’s rampant batsmen.

But that’s in the past and Curran, who has a bright future ahead of him, is living in the present.

"Coming on and taking a few early wickets, I can't really remember it," Curran said. "Personally, it was obviously a pretty special day for me with the ball.

"It's obviously a pretty cool feeling for me standing in the field, and you've got the likes of my heroes – ‘Jimmy’ and ‘Broady’ and ‘Stokesy’ and everyone, running into bowl, and Kohli – all these boys I've grown up watching, and I've been thrown in to play against them."

"I felt like I was running in at The Oval for Surrey – I forgot about what I'm actually doing, and just stuck to what I'm good at.

"In my first Test a couple of months ago against Pakistan, I was probably a little bit nervous."

"You've just got to keep learning every day, and keep enjoying it."