Zak Crawley gets the backing of Marcus Trescothick in NZ failure that has seen him score a paltry 52 runs in 6 innings.
Zak Crawley has had a nightmare of a series in New Zealand. If there were loyalty cards in Test cricket, Matt Henry would be in line for a free Zak Crawley.
Late on day three in Hamilton, England reached the end of the series at 18 for 2, chasing an absurd 658, when Henry caught Crawley for the sixth time this series and ninth overall.
After Crawley had advanced down the ground, a previous lbw dismissal off the sixth ball of England’s second innings was successfully overturned on height. Then, with his final delivery of the day, Henry pinned Crawley in ahead. Crawley appealed for DRS again after umpire Adrian Holdstock’s finger went up, but this time the umpire’s call had a whisker snipped off the leg stump.
With just 52 runs from six innings at an average of 8.66, his series comes to a close. No England opener has averaged so low and batted so frequently in a single series. The winter has been detrimental to Crawley’s career average, especially when you include the 139 runs at 27.80 he scored during the tour of Pakistan. After impressive performances in the 2023 Ashes (480 runs at 53.33), and the away series in India at the beginning of 2024 (407 at 40), it jumped past 33 after the first West Indies Test in the summer and has since fallen to 30.51.
The administration of England has long shielded Crawley from criticism by claiming that they firmly believe he can play world-class cricket against the finest teams in the world.
This position is still in place, especially because Australia and India are scheduled to join in 2025. Marcus Trescothick, the assistant coach, reaffirmed his unwavering support for Crawley and expressed empathy with his difficulties as a former opening batsman.
“It’s always tough when someone gets something over you, and you find it really challenging and you’ve got to come up with plans,” Trescothick said. “I had similar situations in my time when I was playing against other oppositions.
“You go away when you’ve got the opportunity, which he has now, to try and think about it before next time they come up against each other.
“I think the important part of this is to remember we’re very much focussed on him being the opening batter for a good period to come. We’ve seen the damage that he does and how he goes about it.
“I don’t want to give you too much about how he goes about it in the changing room because it’s the private area of what we have… but he’s a strong character. Although it’s challenging when it’s like this, when someone gets you under the pump, it’s tough, but he’ll find a way. And we’ll help him find a way to get back to that point.”