MICHAEL Vaughan said Zak Crawley was the “luckiest” player to have won so many England caps after the opening batsman was twice out in familiar fashion as India levelled the Test series.
Crawley tightened up his defence while making a valuable 65 as England chased down a stiff target of 371 to win the first Test at Headingley against an India attack led by Jasprit Bumrah.
But with India resting Bumrah, the world’s top-ranked Test bowler, at Edgbaston, the 27-year-old Crawley reverted to his old ways by twice getting out driving loosely at balls well outside off stump while making scores of 19 and nought.
The tourists crushed England by 336 runs to make it 1-1 with three more matches to come in the series.
Despite his struggles, Crawley has kept his place in England’s squad for next week’s third Test at Lord’s.
“In my time watching, playing for and covering England, he is the player luckiest to have won as many caps as he has,“ former England captain Vaughan wrote of Crawley in Britain’s Daily Telegraph.
“He has to count himself fortunate to have played 56 games while scoring just five hundreds and averaging 31.”
Vaughan, who scored 18 Test centuries, added: “Crawley is so exasperating because he has the game…. But he has to score more runs at the top of the order.”
England opening great Geoffrey Boycott was even more scathing than Vaughan about Crawley’s approach to batting.
“I don’t think he can change or get better,“ said Boycott, writing in the same newspaper. “His faults in technique and thinking are ingrained.
“A leopard doesn’t change his spots, or maybe Zak does not want to change. He should be approaching his best years but in 56 Tests he has learned nothing.
“One sparkling innings (of 267) and numerous failures, with an average of 31, is not good enough.”
England were also comprehensively out-bowled at Edgbaston. India paceman Akash Deep, only playing because Bumrah was rested, took 10 wickets in the match.
England paceman Chris Woakes took the new ball but managed just two wickets, with Boycott suggesting the 36-year-old’s best days are behind him.
“It is counter-productive to keep the same guys in the team when they are past their sell-by date or not doing enough,“ he said.
“Look at Chris Woakes. His pace is dropping as you would expect as a seamer gets older. He has never been a wicket-taker abroad, where his record is poor.” – AFP
