'Was Braver Against Australia and that...': Zak Crawley Opens Up After Stellar Ashes 2023
Zak Crawley scored 480 runs in The Ashes 2023 [Source: Twitter]
Coming into the much-hyped 'The Ashes 2023', England's opener Zak Crawley struggled to find form and had poor outings on both Pakistan and New Zealand tours, respectively.
However, once the Ashes 2023 finished, Crawley sees himself on top of the batting charts, with 480 runs (second-highest run-scorer) in the five-Test series, ahead of players such as Joe Root, Steven Smith, and Marnus Labuschagne.
Speaking on Vaughany and Tuffers podcast, Crawley has credited coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes' aggressive approach for his coming into form, while explaining his approach against Australia's in-form attack.
The 25-year-old struck a belligerent 189 off 182 balls in the fourth-drawn Test at Manchester, which highlighted his shift in mindset for the series.
Here's what Crawley said
"I thought if I could put them under pressure a bit more, it might give me more of a chance. I was certainly braver against them, and that was on purpose. The pitches were good early in this series and thankfully it came off on a few occasions.
There have been times where I’ve felt badly out of nick in the game. I felt out of nick in New Zealand. More the mental block, that fear of failure. I didn’t have the right game plan against certain type of bowling, I couldn’t unlock that over a period of time."
The Kent batter further stated that with such a style of batting, letdowns will also be plenty, but that will not deter his dedication to aggressive batting.
Crawley's run-scoring spree helped England make a remarkable comeback into the series, where they were trailing 2-0 and ended up drawing the Ashes 2023 2-2.
England's next Test assignment will be in India in 2024, where Crawley would hope for a better showing than in 2021.
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