Zak Crawley repaid the faith of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum with a sensational hundred on day two of the Fourth Ashes Test and admitted: “I wouldn’t be playing under anyone else”.
Both Stokes and McCullum have been staunch defenders of Crawley since taking over leadership of the Test side at the start of last summer, with the opener one of three ever-presents, alongside Joe Root and the captain himself.
There has at times been heavy criticism of the 25-year-old and the management’s backing of a player who came into the Ashes averaging less than 29 across his 34 Tests.
However, Stokes and McCullum have long insisted the Kent man is in the side for his game-changing potential and Crawley delivered a fine example with an imperious 189 to put England in charge of the must-win Test.
“It’s fair to say that under any other coach or captain I probably wouldn’t be playing this series,” Crawley said. “So, to be backed by them gives me a lot of confidence. They’ve always said not to worry about being consistent, just to go out and try to win games for England. It would be really nice if we win this game and I’ve contributed to that but there’s a long way to go.”
Crawley played with remarkable aggression, his innings lasting 182 balls and, alongside first Moeen Ali and then Joe Root, orchestrated a ridiculous middle session in which England scored 178 runs in just 25 overs to leave Australia in disarray.
Stokes had said ahead of the game that, with poor weather forecast for the weekend, England would look to move the game on early but Crawley insisted his approach was based on instinct.
“I was just trying to play my natural game,” he added. “I’ve scored quicker in this series than most and I think that’s just the quality of their bowlers, I don’t want to sit there for too long because there’s a good ball in there. I batted well at times and scored really quickly in certain patches, then tried to absorb and get a few singles in others.
“We haven’t really focused too much on the weather, we’re just controlling what we can control. If that comes, we’ll worry about that later in the game.”
England are in a commanding position, already 67 runs ahead of Australia’s first innings 317, with six wickets still in hand. Stokes has gained a reputation for aggressive declarations and England will have to play some heed to the weather in a match Australia can afford to draw and still regain the Ashes, but Crawley expects England to try to press home their advantage with the bat when play resumes on Friday.
“Anything can happen with Stokesy,” Crawley added. “I think that while we have two very good players at the crease [Stokes and Harry Brook] and Jonny [Bairstow] still to come, plus a strong tail, I think the game plan will be to bat well tomorrow and bat once.
“Maybe if we lose a couple of early wickets tomorrow that changes but we’d like a big lead and bowl them out and not have to bat again. That would be ideal and we are not expecting that. It’s a good wicket to bat on now, but it might get worse, we are expecting them to bat well.”
