After Test retention, Zak Crawley declared that he “doesn’t care” about social media haters

After the opener was revealed as one of the 15 names for the first Test of the summer against Ireland, which takes place on June 1 ahead of the Ashes, Zak Crawley said he doesn’t care about criticism about his ongoing selection.

The decision to replace wicketkeeper Ben Foakes with Jonny Bairstow, who was returning, was the main topic of conversation, although Crawley’s presence was also discussed. The selectors were unable to include both Foakes and Bairstow in the same starting XI, therefore they decided to leave both out. 

Before Tuesday’s squad release, there was talk of moving Bairstow, Harry Brook, or even Ben Stokes up to open in place of Crawley to free up room in the middle order. Rob Key, the managing director, acknowledged that such a move was not taken into consideration.

As a result, Crawley’s job was secure, which caused a social media backlash criticizing the choice to keep him on at the expense of Foakes. Crawley, who does not use social media, spoke on Tuesday, dismissing the chatter about him and feeling that some of the criticism has been unwarranted.

“I never see any of that [online criticism],”

Crawley told BBC Sport.

“I talk to guys who do have social media and they see that. They see Joe Bloggs having a go at them.

“[Being off] social media helps me get away from the average punter and what they have to say which, of course, I don’t care anyway.

“At times last year I certainly felt I was getting a lot of scrutiny, some of it unwarranted. I was playing okay and getting decent scores and I was still getting scrutiny, but it is easy to comment.

“I obviously definitely still see the pundits and the people higher up in cricket and of course I didn’t have to read the papers to know my place was under scrutiny.

“I haven’t been getting the runs I should have, but I have had a few good knocks.”

The 25-year-old has only averaged 27.60 over 33 appearances, and in 12 games since Stokes took over as Test captain at the beginning of last summer, he has only averaged 25.86. In 23 innings throughout that period, he has only scored 11 single-digit runs and hit 102 half-centuries.

As Brendon McCullum stated it at the conclusion of last summer, Stokes and the team’s head coach have frequently defended Crawley’s bad performance by saying that his strengths as a hitter “are not to be a consistent cricketer.”

So far, the County Championship has shown that. This season, Crawley has participated in all five of Kent’s Division One contests, scoring 350 runs with an average score of 38.88. Despite multiple poor starts, including two ducks, a huge 170 versus Essex and two half-centuries were scored.

Crawley admits he hasn’t done as well for England as he would have liked. He feels more prepared to handle the mental rigors now that he has given it some thought, especially when it comes to evaluating his own performance. 

He claims that part of that is realizing that evaluating his performance in terms of centuries is “nonsense”. Crawley has three Test victories to their credit, the most recent coming in December against Pakistan.

“My failings in international cricket have been from putting too much pressure on myself. That is the only reason. Whenever I have gone out there with the right attitude I have done well.

“I have done a lot of thinking about my game, especially in the last couple of months. I look back at times I have played well and I take the expectation away from myself and I just try and play.

“A lot of people talk about scoring hundreds all of the time in cricket. I am coming to believe that is nonsense.

“I just want to go out there and play well and the score will come after that.

“I could play brilliantly for 20 and get a good ball. You could play terribly for a hundred and everyone says ‘well batted’, when actually I played better for the 20. You have got to judge it off your terms.”