ZAK’S BACK
Crawley ready to make most of a new opening
too much for
Bubble life? Give him more. Open the batting after a career- defining 267 at number three? Why not.
Get prepared for more spin than a Downing Street briefing? He would love to.
Whatever the challenge presented to the 22- year- old, he is ready to meet it with the same full face of the bat that he presented hour after hour to the Pakistan bowlers last summer.
Five months on from his magnum opus at the Ageas Bowl, his most recent international innings remains the double hundred that announced him as a Test cricketer of huge promise.
Whether he can still use that warm afterglow to fire him to more success in Sri Lanka remains to be seen, but moving up the order due to Rory Burns’ paternity absence or staying confined to a hotel is not going to work against him.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Crawley after the first training session of the tour thanks to a full set of negative tests bar Moeen Ali’s.
“It’s going to be a good challenge. Sri Lanka are very good in their home conditions. I assume it might be the case that I open. It doesn’t change much for me. I see the top four as all pretty similar roles. I would say three is my favoured position. I wanted to bat three from a young age, but I’m happy to bat in any of those.
“I think it’s quite likely I will open though and I’m looking forward to that.
“It was a huge relief to be able to come here. I was very excited to get out of England, come over here and play some cricket in the sun. I’m absolutely loving it and I’m not feeling any pressure in the bubble.
“I have accepted that this is how we are going to play Test cricket and I would do a lot more bubbles to play Test cricket. I’ve plenty more runs to score to secure my place in the side.”
Crawley has already shown in his eight- Test career that he has a strong ability to adapt to the situation and conditions he faces.
No adjustment is greater for an Englishman than to be able to play spin well in the subcontinent and Crawley has been putting in the hours on that craft too.
He has toured India twice with the Kent academy, plus he has played in Sri Lanka twice before – including the start of England’s curtailed tour last March when he scored a hundred warm- up match.
The experiences all add up, but so too do the quiet moments of preparation, according to Crawley.
“It’s something I’ve put a lot of thought into so hopefully I’m mentally prepared,” he said.
“You just sit down in a dark room and you think about it. When you’re going to bed and before you shut your eyes.
“I do quite a lot of that and I think I’ve got a decent game plan.
“Playing spin in the subcontinent is mainly about working on your defence.” in a
You sit in a dark room and think about it...