Michael Vaughan labels Zak Crawley as 'greatest ever player' but with a twist

England opener Zak Crawley has been one of those batsmen who have shined for the tourists on the ongoing red-ball tour of India. The batter has scored 328 runs from eight innings at an average of 41.00. Crawley has managed to get three fifty-plus scores but on the other side, he has not been able to convert them into big hundreds.

While Zak Crawley has scored runs for England, big names such as Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root (other than the fourth Test), and captain Ben Stokes have not been able to perform as per the expectations. Even, English vice-captain Ollie Pope has completely failed to score runs apart from his 196-run knock in the first Test.

Speaking on Club Prairie Fire’s YouTube channel, former England captain Michael Vaughan stated that Zak Crawley shall convert his starts into big scores. Vaughan added that his Test career average doesn’t do justice to his talent and lauded the batter by saying that he makes batting look very easy.

Michael Vaughan makes a sincere request to Zak Crawley

Michael Vaughan said, “He’s the greatest ever player to average 31 in Test cricket. I’ve not seen a better player that is averaging 31 in Test matches. He makes batting look so easy. You watch him, and he strolls to the crease, and before you know, he’s on 20, 25, 30, 40, and then 50, raises his bat, playing great hits down the ground, then he whips one through mid-wicket.”

Further speaking in the conversation, Michael Vaughan believed that Zak Crawley needed to score daddy hundreds and convert his little fancy fifties into big scores.

He said, “Oh, here we go, keep going, keep going, Oh! he’s out. Happens every time. He’s got to kick on. He’s got to somehow find a way of kicking on on these little nice fancy fifties. You gotta get the daddy hundreds.”

The Three Lions’ major reason behind their failure to win the Test series against India has been their dependence on the performance of individual players. Only one batsman has been scoring the majority of runs for the tourists in the ongoing Test series, and once that batter gets out, the whole team falls like a deck of cards.

England captain Ben Stokes has not been able to deliver his best with the bat so far and has only scored one fifty in the series. On the other, Joe Root has been a failure for the Three Lions in the ongoing series as well. Root scored a ton in the first innings of the fourth Test match but wasn’t able to continue his form in the second innings.

The tourists have given tough competition to India so far, however, the Indian bowlers have proved to be more dominant for the English batsmen. On the other hand, the Indian batters have also struggled to play against the English spinners, but they have not been dependent on individual performances. In every innings almost every batter has made a contribution to the team’s score which has been the major reason behind India winning the series.