Zak Crawley’s tour of the Caribbean began as it started.
In the second innings of the Third Test in Grenada, just as in the first innings of the First Test in Antigua, he scored eight off 11 balls. Each time, there were two booming drives for four, that inspired awe and ire in the same breath, such was the easiness on the eye and the obvious danger.
And then, attempting another to a ball from Jayden Seales that just did he enough, he was caught behind the wicket. The only difference was that the first came off the inside edge, the last off the outside.
Between those two dismissals, there had been flickers of promise from Crawley. There were more frustratingly cheap dismissals in the first innings in Barbados and Grenada, but while his second innings century in Antigua took place on a flat pitch, there was significant jeopardy, with England behind on first innings by 64 and his opening partner Alex Lees dismissed early. He batted well for 40 as England set up a declaration in Barbados.
Crawley ended the series with an average of 30.66. Were this series played in the era before DRS (thankfully it was not, given the consistency of the umpiring errors), things would have been much worse: in his century, he was given out on 0. In his 40, he was given out on two.
That average is a little above his career average (28.6) and his average in the Ashes this winter (27.66). There, too, he looked in good touch, played one delightful innings, but got out cheaply often too.
The greatest frustration of all – and there are a few – was that he failed to learn from his Antigua innings. There, he spoke with maturity and wisdom about how he had intentionally tightened up outside off-stump, forgoing the big drives, and waiting for the Windies to slip onto his pads, at which point he punished them.
It felt like the blueprint for Crawley. He has technical issues – particularly with the angle of his bat path – but his issues are largely temperamental: his over-eagerness to drive.
Of all England’s quandaries, Crawley is one of the most vexing. They need him to work, for two reasons.
The first is what comes below him. Joe Root has taken a selfless decision to move up a place to the more challenging position of No3. But if he is to thrive there, England need to make steady starts. Root likes to feel bat on ball and needs, sometimes at least, to be coming in with the shine off the ball and some runs on the board.
Otherwise, he is at the mercy of opposition bowlers at their most potent. When Root fails, England are likely to collapse. That has been the case when Crawley has been dismissed early on three occasions on this tour: day one in Antigua (48 for four) and Grenada (67 for six), and day three in Grenada (39 for four). Crawley’s looseness is exposing England’s entire gameplan.
They also need Crawley to work, because he is a talented player, in possession of Test hundreds (and other impressive innings in Sydney, Johannesburg and, all too briefly, Ahmedabad), willing to fill the job that no one else wants. He is a rarity, in that he is a young English batter who wants to bat in the top three. Unlike many before him, he is yet to be so scarred by the experience that he drifts down to the middle order.
But so many of his innings feel like another audition to head south to No4, 5 or 6, where there is already a logjam of pretenders, both old – Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow – and young, Dan Lawrence and Ollie Pope.
Many sound judges, in England and further afield, rate Crawley very highly. At a time when batting has proved difficult in the County Championship, he was a punt on potential in 2019, with the belief being that he had the strokes to thrive at the top level, despite a middling domestic record. At times, he has proved both camps right.
Just as he has shown desire to bat at the top of the order, he has shown an inclination to lead, another precious commodity in English cricket. There is so much to like about Crawley and his game, but those good days – which are so sweet – need to come more frequently.
