The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Pitches blamed for Test batting decline
Zak Crawley has suggested the decline in England’s Test batting is partly due to the “poor pitches” on offer in county cricket.
A one-sided Ashes defeat featuring three hammerings followed by last week’s nail-biting draw in Sydney has led to a familiar bout of soulsearching in the English game.
One of the most conspicuous problems is the team’s frequent inability to post significant totals – a problem that starts from the very top of the order.
Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed and Crawley himself – until a freeflowing 77 on day five at the SCG, at least – have proved easy pickings for the Australia attack.
The skills needed to bat long and score big on a consistent basis appear to be in short supply and Crawley, 23, believes the deck is stacked against those who are trying to do so in the domestic game.
To see him at his best on Sunday – pulling the world’s number one bowler Pat Cummins hard in front of square or using his height to drive lavishly through the covers – it is easy to imagine him being a dominant figure in county cricket.
And, yet, he sits on a truly modest first-class average of 31.21 over four years with Kent.
Asked about his county record, he said: “I think it’s the fact I’ve batted on poor pitches, really for my whole championship career.
“I feel like it’s been very hard to open the batting. The pitches have been very favourable to bowlers my whole career.
“At my best I’ve obviously shown something the England selectors have enjoyed, so I got picked with an average of 30. That is less than normal but there aren’t too many openers averaging a lot more than that at the moment.”
Crawley’s words are sure to raise a few objections, from ground staff if nobody else but, in an environment where administrators are asking serious questions about the ability of the domestic game to produce international quality players, they could find a sympathetic audience.
“Obviously I’d like the pitch at Canterbury to be a little bit better – I don’t think it’s unfair of me to say – but I don’t think it’s just a Kent thing,” he said.
“I think pretty much all the grounds I’ve played on have been pretty poor.
“I think it’s more a country-wide problem and I think it will help our Test team a lot if pitches did start getting better.”
Crawley, who has cemented his place in the team for the fifth Ashes Test in Hobart this week, also revealed how watching footage of his career-best double century against Pakistan helped see him through a dramatic drop in form last year.
The Kent batter looked set for stardom when he scored a sensational 267 at the Ageas Bowl in August 2020, the 10th highest Test score by an England player in history.
But rather than ride the crest of that wave, Crawley sank.
In 2021 he batted 16 times for his country and made 173 runs at an ego-bruising average of 10.81.
His dashing 77 last time out was good enough for Australia great Ian Chappell to tip him as “the future of England” but Crawley admitted there have been times where he has needed to bolster his own self-belief.
“I watch that innings frequently when I’m going through bad form, to be honest, because it is a nice reminder that I’ve done it before and I can do it again,” he said.