WHY CRAWLEY CAN’T AFFORD TO FAIL IN TEST AGAINST INDIA OPENER STRUGGLES TO MAKE IMPACT

Opener needs to embrace new era — just like Pope and Leach

MORNING rain delayed England’s charge for an improbable, exhilarating 3-0 series win. But whether they secured the 113 runs required to win this Test or not, the overwhelming expectation was that — barring late injuries or a change of heart — they would instantly name an unchanged squad for Friday’s Covid-delayed Test against India at Edgbaston.

That is the way in the Brendon McCullum-Ben Stokes era. Players are backed while England win. There have been match-shaping contributions from almost everyone in the side, with Jack Leach joining the party in some style here, with his first Test 10-wicket haul. Like so many others, he looks energised by the new management.

The one player struggling is Zak Crawley, who played a worryingly skittish innings yesterday. He flashed his way to 25, his first double-digit score since the first innings of the series, playing his part in Alex Lees’s run out along the way, before looping a catch to the one man in front of square on the offside. Crawley struggles to rotate the strike, dealing so heavily in boundaries, which might explain how that run out happened, and looked intent on hitting his way out of trouble, which is never a great sign.

There is suddenly great contrast between Crawley and Ollie Pope, another 24-year-old who has had plenty of chances in Test cricket. Having made 146 at Trent Bridge, Pope reached stumps on 81. There was a calmness to his batting we have not often seen at Test level and Pope is clearly working overtime to keep his technique tight enough. But that is a battle he is winning, and there is tempo to his strokeplay. Working with Joe Root, with whom his partnership was an unbroken 132 at almost five an over, is clearly helping.

It was in his 25th Test last week that Pope found a landmark performance. Leach has done the same this week. Edgbaston would be Crawley’s 25th, a considerable investment, and England will hope that the sense of occasion — he will be presented with a new cap — will bring the best out of him.

Another quiet Test at Edgbaston would be six in a row for Crawley since his century in Antigua and would make him difficult to select against South Africa in August, even though he is strongly backed by Stokes and McCullum.

Alternatives are not obvious. Crawley’s opening partner at Kent, Ben Compton, has had a breakthrough year at 28, but his staid style might not fit with this side’s way. Other than him it is those who have had a go before: Dom Sibley, Rory Burns, Sam Robson.

Kumar Sangakkara, sixth on the alltime Test run charts, recommended England turn to Jos Buttler, with whom he works at the IPL, to open the batting. That would be pure BazBall, but seems improbable, not least because he could be about to shoulder rather more white-ball responsibility when Eoin Morgan retires this week.

It might be that Ben Foakes’s illness provides England with a little opportunity.

Foakes is on the mend from Covid, but it is too early to say if he will be fit for Friday. If not, Harry Brook could get a go in the middle order, with Jonny Bairstow taking the gloves.

With numbers three to six locked in until the end of the summer at least, the top order is the only area of uncertainty. Pope at No3 shows England are not afraid of experimenting. Brook has opened for Yorkshire before and is a better player now.

At Edgbaston, Crawley will have one Test to save his spot.