Former England skipper Michael Vaughan was criticizing opening batter Zak Crawley’s form, saying that the bowlers have found his weakness while Vaughan said he wants Crawley to make some tweaks in his batting approach.
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan was criticizing opening batter Zak Crawley’s form, saying that the bowlers have found his weakness.
Crawley has battled to score runs of late and was excused on a score of nine on Day 2 of the ongoing fifth Test against India at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Vaughan reviewed India batting legend Sachin Tendulkar’s initial struggles against Australia in 2004, preceding he chose to invalidate the drive and ended up scoring 241 in Sydney.
Citing the same example, Vaughan said he wants Crawley to make some tweaks in his batting approach.
“Sachin Tendulkar had a tough tour to Australia in 2004 when the ball was nipping around and he was getting out playing the drive. What did he do? He nullified the drive and scored 241 in Sydney. Crawley has not tried that yet. He has not tried to put away the drive for two hours while the ball is new. Ultimately, he has not hit the opposition with another method. If you keep doing the same things, you will be found out repeatedly because bowlers are not stupid,”
Sportskeeda quoted Vaughan as writing in his column for the Telegraph.
“England got it completely wrong in the morning. I am a massive fan of Ben Stokes and Baz (Brendon) McCullum. I like inventive, creative, and out-of-the-box thinking. But that comes when the pitch is flat and the conditions aren’t quite in your favor,”
Michael Vaughan said in an interaction with Cricbuzz.
“At Edgbaston, the clouds were around. You just had to hit the top of off stump. You’ve got Broad and (James) Anderson, two of the greats of the game, bowling to Jasprit Bumrah, who can bat just a little bit. They decide to go short with all the fields spread out. It was very similar to what happened at Lord’s last year. I can’t believe they haven’t learned from what happened at Lord’s,”
added the former England skipper.
Having earlier recommended that England ought to give a longer run to Crawley, Vaughan now feels that the 24-year-old batter has not learned from his mistakes and is hence getting exposed by the opposition bowlers.
“Eventually you have to recognize there is a problem. Since his 267 against Pakistan in 2020, Crawley has averaged 11 in English conditions without one fifty. You can say you are supporting him and he is your man but you are not doing other people a service when you back someone who has a massive issue. We have now seen him get out the same way pretty much week in and week out. He has not adapted,”
Vaughan further wrote.