If Zak Crawley showed little sign of the pressure he was under as he became one of three English centurions on the opening day against Zimbabwe, it is possibly because he did not know he was under any.
The opener’s place in the team was presumed to be at risk after a poor run of form was followed by heavy hints that Jacob Bethell would be parachuted straight into the team on his return from the IPL, but after scoring 124 – England’s third-highest innings of the day after Ben Duckett’s 140 and Ollie Pope’s unbeaten 169 – the 27-year-old insisted he had heard no such rumours and had felt nothing from his coaches and colleagues except support.
