FRONT CRAWL
Zak chasing century
ZAK CRAWLEY is desperate to stop being England’s fall guy and make sure he remains in the batting line-up when Ben Stokes returns.
But as the only player in the top seven without a Test century to his name so far, there is only one way he is going to make himself undroppable in the future.
Crawley, 22, has played seven
Tests so far and as he eagerly anticipates his 11th innings following his recall, a top score of 76 suggests promise.
But it is the concrete output of a century that puts doubts to bed.
Fellow young batsman Dom Sibley has done it twice and Ollie Pope once, which means Crawley needs to turn his dream into reality to cement his place.
“I’d love to score enough runs so my position in the side becomes more stable,” said the Kent star, on a washed-out third day against Pakistan at the Ageas Bowl.
“I probably need some runs in the next few games to cement it a bit more. Hopefully in a few games’ time, or longer down the line, my place will be secure and I’ll play for a while.
“I think about scoring a hundred all the time. I pinch myself thinking about it in my room at night. I massively want to do it for England.
“No doubt, the first one is probably the hardest so there’s a lot of hard work to come.”
One of the strongest positives for Crawley is surely how straightforward he has made run-scoring look at times.
Kent team-mate Joe Denly had just as many strokes but seemed almost scared of using them. So while he was able to soak up pressure and face plenty of balls the runs tally wasn’t big enough. And after making 94 against Australia at the Oval last summer, Denly found how hard it can be to hold on to your spot when you fail to hit three figures. When Joe Root returned to the side after the birth of his daughter, the lack of a ton counted against him.
“There might be no hundreds next to his name but he played crucial knocks for
England,” said Crawley.
“He scored some great runs i n New
Zealand and South
Africa on some tricky pitches but the currency is centuries.
“I t ’ s wh a t we’re all chasing.”