Sam Curran last played a Test for England in 2021.
Ben Stokes’s sudden retirement from international cricket has left a huge void in the England team, particularly in Test cricket. Not only have they lost a mercurial captain, but also a brilliant batter and medium-pace bowler.
He featured in 279 international matches across all formats and scored over 11,000 runs for the English team. There was also an impressive total of over 350 wickets. He played a crucial role in England's World Cup victories in 2022 (20 overs) and 2019 (50 overs).
Ben Stokes scored 7273 runs, including 14 hundreds and a top score of 258, and claimed 252 wickets with a best bowling average of 6/22 in 122 Tests. In 114 ODIs, Stokes scored 3463 runs, including 5 centuries and 24 fifties, with a top score of 182, and took 74 wickets, with a best bowling average of 5/61. Stokes played 43 Twenty20 Internationals, accumulating 585 runs and collecting 26 wickets.
Stokes' sudden retirement leaves England looking for a new captain and a solution for how to balance the team for their next series, against Pakistan in August. And Sam Curran has put his hand up to fill the huge gap left by Stokes.
Curran only made appearances for England in white-ball forms after playing the final of his 24 Test matches in 2021. However, in Stokes' position as a seam-bowling all-rounder, the 28-year-old might be the best choice as a like-for-like replacement.
"Yeah, of course. But it's one of those things where I just want to try to perform my best, and whenever the time comes, they decide who is going to replace Stokesy - playing for England is amazing, and I'm a competitive guy. When I've got a ball or bat in my hand, I just try to do my best, so we'll see what happens,” Curran told BBC Sport when asked whether he would welcome the call.
England picked Shoaib Bashir for the second Test against New Zealand, when Ben Stokes was suspended for one Test after the nightclub incident involving him and pacer Gus Atkinson.
That might be a system England uses now that Stokes has left, but it leaves the team unbalanced; adding an all-rounder would allow for a five-man assault, including a spinner.
While spin-bowling all-rounder Rehan Ahmed has been included in England's squads for the three Test matches this summer, Surrey's Curran would be a possibility at seamer. Another spin-bowling all-rounder, James Coles, was on Friday called up to the England one-day squad for the first time.
Curran said he and other players are aware of the speculation as to who will replace Stokes.
"It's something you have to always deal with. There's no doubt that, with Ben Stokes retiring, there will be hype around it. At the same time, I'm sure whoever comes in will do their best and try to get the focus on them, rather than on Ben. There's no doubt he will be a big miss for England, and we'll see how it goes.
There is a lot of noise about Stokesy retiring, but I don't really want to put too much pressure on myself. Whatever happens over the next few weeks, my main thing is to try to contribute and win games for England, and what will be, will be,” Curran added.
Curran is part of the England XI that will face India in the second T20 at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Jofra Archer and debutant Josh Tongue have replaced fellow fast bowlers Saqib Mahmood and Luke Wood in England's XI for the series opener, which was called off on Wednesday.