When Matthew Mott informed him that he wanted to
captain England, Zak Crawley was “shocked.” He has only won three
caps for England’s white-ball sides, all of which came against Pakistan two
years ago, and his professional leadership experience is limited to two
Championship games and two T20s for Kent.
But this three-match ODI series against Ireland, which
starts at Headingley on Wednesday, represents an opportunity for Crawley to lay
down his captaincy credentials. “We see leadership potential in him,”
Luke Wright, England’s national selector, said this week. “The way he
handles himself around the group in Test cricket has been hugely
impressive.”
“I captained a few age-group teams and my school
team, growing up,” Crawley said. “I remember Shane Warne saying you
should always think like a captain when you’re playing. I’ve done that since I
was a kid – ‘what should we do now?’ – but I think everyone does that when
you’re in the field, and maybe a bit bored.
“The good thing Baz [McCullum] has done – and
Stokesy – is they’ve encouraged everyone to speak up. You feel very comfortable
speaking up in the dressing-room. I certainly think that’s happened more in the
last couple of years: more people have come out of the woodwork and led from
the front. That’s most of the [Test] squad: there are leaders everywhere you
look.”
Crawley’s message to his side will be simple:
“We’re trying to get this group to become the main team one day. We’re
looking at the future and trying to emulate those guys above by doing the same
things, playing the same positive way and trying to copy them as much as
possible… We’ll try and keep it very similar and take the game on, like those
guys have been doing for eight years now.”