Image Credit- BCCI
During the second Test match in Visakhapatnam, Brendon
McCullum’s remarks from two years prior were compared to the opening in the
middle of Zak Crawley’s runs of 76 and 73.
In an attempt to soften the blow of Crawley’s 2022
summer collapse to a season average of 23, the head coach of the Test team had
earlier declared that Crawley was “never going to be a consistent type of
cricketer”. The following winter provided more opportunity to express that
emotion. It started off nicely with scores of 122 and 50 in the opening Test
against Pakistan in Rawalpindi, but a run of four double-figure scores in eight
innings over the remainder of that series and the two Tests in New Zealand followed.
With 748 runs at an average of 53.42 since the
beginning of last summer, Crawley has led the squad in runs for a team that
rarely lacks them. He has averaged exactly fifty against India thus far, with
two hundred coming from four innings.
With thirty, he leads England in boundary finding and
holds the distinction of being the only player in the top seven not to have
been removed by Jasprit Bumrah. When McCullum made his remarks about
consistency, it was obvious that he was trying to protect Crawley from
criticism. He liked the way the hitter lined himself up, how cleanly he hit the
ball, and how skilled he was on the pull. That has been proved correct.
Crawley has benefited greatly from his ability to turn
the once-admonished sweep stroke into an extra club in his bag. Even though the
series is only halfway over, Crawley has already played the stroke (in all of
its forms) 14 times, which is twice as often as he did in Pakistan throughout
the previous winter, and has amassed 29 runs. He has tried the reverse three
times now and found the boundary twice, having attempted it just once in four
innings during the 2021 visit here.
His driving has been especially precise on the ground.
With his head slightly behind the ball and his stance a little narrower than
before, Crawley comes across the ball less frequently than before, which
increases the risk of him nicking off. This has improved his game against spin
and made it easier for him to move ahead or backward.
Perhaps because of his increased technical skill, he
has faced 92 balls from Bumrah and has not only avoided injury but also
achieved an 81.52 control %. Other than
the reverse swing barrage, which he hasn’t yet encountered, Bumrah has a tonne
of other tactics in his sleeve, but none of them have yet to work for Crawley.
Naturally, there is still a long way to go in this
series. England will effectively be playing a best-of-three shootout when they
land in Rajkot on Monday with equal honours and resume their journey at the
Niranjan Shah Stadium on Thursday. This is when the real stuff begins.
But given his role as England’s best player,
especially with Joe Root finding it difficult to get going, Crawley needs to
adopt a more brutal attitude. Although his scores in Vizag were far higher than
those of his peers, he failed to deliver on both occasions. Although India’s
innings was characterised by a single exceptional batsman, Shubman Gill’s 104
in the second innings and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 209 in the first were both
instances of dominance and making those moments count.
Crawley knows as much. “I’m still trying to chase
those big knocks,” he admitted during that second Test press conference.
They are not far away. But as the series enters its most critical phase,
England could do with him finding them.