Posted by There you are, point proven. How could you ever have doubted him? Zak Crawley is averaging 124 across his last one innings in Test cricket.
We think the way it works is that Zak Crawley’s hundred is only worth something if it can first be hung off something else. Basically, if England ultimately decide to persist with him for some wholly unrelated reason, only then will this hundred against Zimbabwe be put forward as supporting evidence.
Ben Stokes has sort of already said that Jacob Bethell will return to the Test team for the India series.
“If you’re smart enough, the series that Beth had out in New Zealand, obviously he’s going to be back in the UK for that India series – so, I think you put two and two together, you probably know what’s going to happen.”
Except we don’t. Not exactly. Because unless England get special dispensation to field a XII, then most likely either Crawley or Ollie Pope will have to exit the team to make way for him.
But which? Hopefully this Zimbabwe Test wasn’t pencilled-in as a shoot-out because, rather unhelpfully, both of them have made a hundred. (To be honest, if there’s a weak link in the batting right at this minute, it’s the ageing guy who averages 30-odd who’s still proving his fitness after hamstring surgery.)
Crawley has now been under significant pressure for longer than Oceangate’s Titan submersible. By May 2023, his presence was already a big enough hobby horse for people that his name frequently cropped up in a debate about England dropping their wicketkeeper.
Since then, he’s fuelled both sides of the barbecue by proving himself the greatest inside-edger in world cricket and thrashing 189 in an Ashes Test, before striking a rich vein of consistency against Matt Henry. And now this.
Say what you like, there’s always something to talk about here. You’ll miss the Zak Crawley debate when he’s gone.
Our personal view is perhaps he’s a sacrificial batter whose significant physical differences to Ben Duckett helps the latter get up and running.
Glad to see someone mention the unmentionable. Ben Stokes dropping himself for Bethell would be no weirder than at least half a dozen other things he’s done as captain.
Also, if the plan all along has been to drop Pope then why play him in this test in the first place – is it just so the management team can make themselves look macho by dropping a player who’s just scored a daddy hundred.
As someone who has spent a great deal of his England-following “career” wondering where on earth we might find test match quality batsmen among the seemingly enormous pool of county quality batsmen…
…this feels like the sort of problem England want.
One for the summer bingo card.
‘A nice problem to have’.
Up there with ‘Tougher tests await’ and ‘One game at a time’.
One for the summer bingo card.
‘A nice problem to have.’
Up there with ‘Tougher tests await’ and ‘One game at a time.’
So good he said it twice.
That makes it two for the summer bingo card, Sam. Two for the summer bingo card, I said. 🤪
Left-field, but for India, why not dump both Crawley and Pope, have McKinney open with Duckett, Beth at three, and Rew takes the gloves and have Jamie Smith as a specialist batter?
While we’re at it, why not bring back James Tredwell, Gary Ballance, Matthew Fleming and Martin McCague.