Crawley: I’ll stick to what got me to Test level

ZAK CRAWLEY has vowed to trust his own methods if he wins his dual fitness and selection battles for England in the third Test in India this week.

The 23- year- old Kent batsman has put himself in the frame for a recall in the pivotal day-night match in Ahmedabad after declaring that a sprained wrist which had ruled him out of the first two Tests of the series ‘feels a lot better’ after returning to the nets.

Until the freakish injury — caused by a slip exiting the dressing rooms on a practice day in Chennai — Crawley was opening with Dom Sibley. Now, with Jonny Bairstow set to replace Dan Lawrence at No 3, he is in direct competition with Rory Burns for a return to a team for whom he struck 267 against Pakistan just three appearances ago.

In between, there was a paltry series against Sri Lanka in which he made just 35 runs and was dismissed on all four occasions by left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya.

In the face of similar torment, Sibley opted to tinker with his batting plans against spin, but Crawley is not for changing. ‘It’s very easy in this environment of Test cricket, where there’s a lot of scrutiny, to change quickly but I’ve played a game that’s got me here so far, and a couple of Test matches in Sri Lanka aren’t going to change that,’ he said. ‘If down the line it continued to be a problem, then that’s something to look at that.

He was given extra time to reflect and improve his standing in the team’s 2km running challenge due to his misfortune.

‘Basically my feet went out from underneath me and to protect my head, I stuck out my hand. It was one of those freak incidents where my arm took all the weight,’ he recalled.

The day-night encounter, the pivotal Test in a series locked at 1-1, christens India’s new 110,000- capacity Motera Stadium. Covid restrictions mean it will only be half-full.

But Crawley nevertheless said: ’It’s going to be way more than quite a few of us have played in front of before, so it’s going to be a great experience.’

England v India, third Test, Ahmedabad, Feb 24-28, 9am start, live on Channel 4