Crawley likely to open for SL Tests

England top-order batsman Zak Crawley said that he would likely move up to open the batting in the upcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka in the absence of regular opening batsman Rory Burns who has been granted paternity leave. 

“I have not been told anything yet, but I assume that that must be the case (opening the batting). I see the top four as pretty similar roles to be honest and I bat pretty similarly in all of them. So, I am happy to bat in any of those positions but I think it is quite likely I will open,” he said. 

22-year-old Crawley produced a mammoth score of 267 runs batting at number three in his last International outing against Pakistan last August but stressed that he was keeping his thoughts in the present, and while batting at number three proved fruitful for him, he was willing to slot in at whichever position England needed him at.

“I do not want to be a one-hit wonder where you score a big score and then fade away. I am not going to be living off that innings too long.”

“I would say three is my favoured position. When I was young, I always wanted to bat (at) three, all my heroes batted at three and I obviously got a good score at three. I quite like the way that works where I have a little chance to think about the innings before going in. But it means a lot to play for England and if they want me to open I will, and if they want me to bat (at) six I will,” Crawley added.

Crawley scored a century against the Sri Lanka Board President’s XI in a warm-up game last March – a match which came to a premature end when the decision was taken for the English side to return home in light of the worsening pandemic situation at the time – and indicated that while he found the pitches batting friendly in their two warm-up games last year, the English side were fully understanding of the challenges they could be up against in Sri Lankan conditions.

“We played here in March, (last year) a couple of practice games and I quite liked batting out here. The pitches were very good for batting on. It might sound modest, but it is true. So hopefully they are batter friendly again.”

“They (Sri Lanka) are a very good side in their home conditions and we won’t be taking anything for granted with them. We will have to play well to beat them. If we don’t play well, they will be all over us in their conditions, so we have to turn up and play well,” Crawley opined. 

Crawley further added that the team have embraced the bio-secure environment that they have been placed under, saying that it was worth going through for the opportunity of playing Test-match cricket. 

“We have accepted the fact that this (playing in bio-bubbles) is how we are going to play Test cricket and I will do a lot more bubbles to play Test cricket,” Crawley said.