Zak Crawley: England Test opener targets ODI and T20 spots on more regular basis

England Test opener Zak Crawley is aiming for a more regular role in England’s white-ball team, telling the Sky Sports Cricket podcast that he feels his game is “very suitable” for the formats 50-over and T20.

Crawley has played just eight ODIs for England since his 2021 debut, averaging 28.42, while he is yet to make an appearance for the T20 squad.

After enduring a dreadful 2022 summer in the Test team, where he scored just one fifty in 13 innings, registering seven single-figure scores, Crawley has since been one of England’s standout players , leading to calls for his inclusion in the white-ball arena. .

“I always wanted to be a good white-ball player,” Crawley told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast. “I’m trying to add a few more shots to my game, but I feel like this is a perfect fit and I’ve done well in T20 cricket in the past when I’ve tried there.

“The last few years things weren’t going particularly well, so I wanted to concentrate on the red ball and stay in this team – my priority was always to play Test cricket.

“It will always be my number one format – it means the most to me – but playing any format for England is a huge honor and playing white-ball cricket is something I really want to do.

“I’m trying to add a little more power to my game, I’m working hard in front of the nets trying different things to hopefully hit more and bigger sixes.”

“Facing failure has improved my fitness enormously”

Crawley attributed his Test match turnaround to the support of head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, who remained by his side during his lean season in 2022.

The 26-year-old opener has averaged 41.60 in his 16 Tests since the summer of 2022, hitting two centuries, including a magnificent 168 at Old Trafford last summer in the Draw Ashes series.

“When I was in bad shape in 2022, I found myself reading a lot more (reviews),” Crawley said. “But luckily I’m out of that trend now and I’m not reading positive or negative.

“That’s really what I worked on last year, which improved my form enormously, dealing with failure.

“In India, I was trying to get into that headspace where the outcomes were predetermined – ‘I’ve done all my work,’ leave it up to fate. It helped me immensely to realize that I don’t control the bottom line – go out and play.”

Crawley added: “I always felt like I wanted to score and I think Baz (Brendon McCullum) and Stokesy (Ben Stokes) saw that in me… They give you that freedom to go out and to face it – it’s about how you play rather than how many points you get.

Although England have lost their last four consecutive Test matches in India to fall to a 4-1 series defeat, Stokes is not expected to lose his grip on the captaincy anytime soon – not that This is Crawley’s ambition at present anyway.

Asked if he aspired to one day become a skipper, Crawley replied: “To be honest, I don’t.

“If I’m asked ultimately it would obviously be a great honour, but playing under Stokesy he’s the best captain I’ve ever played under.

“I always try to be a leader in the group by acting professionally and being a good team man. You don’t have to be captain to be a leader.

“I always thought that if you want to be captain, you shouldn’t be. The captain should be the man the team wants to be captain.”

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Zak Crawley: England Test opener targets ODI and T20 spots on more regular basis | Cricket News

“Facing failure has improved my fitness enormously”

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