"We aren't going to change.."- Zak Crawley boasts Bazball approach despite a poor record vs India

England’s top-order batsman Zak Crawley has affirmed that the English contingent will play with a much similar mindset as before when the 5-match Test series in India kicks off from January 25th. Crawley is among the 16 players selected in the England squad which will try to beat the hosts in their backyard in a red-ball series for the first time since 2012.

It is going to be Zak Crawley’s 2nd tour of India for a Test series as he was a part of the team that suffered a 3-1 loss in the 4-match series back in 2020/21. He played the last two Tests in Ahmedabad and scored 53 in the 1st innings of the 3rd Test.

Since then he has gone on to become an important batsman for the Three Lions in red-ball cricket and has performed consistently. His numbers in the longest format have improved with each passing year. After playing just a single Test in the year of his debut in 2019, Zak Crawley scored 580 runs in 7 matches in 2020.

He experienced a trembling 2021, scoring 173 in 8 matches but he had a breakout season the very next year. Crawley played 15 Tests and scored 844 runs including 2 centuries and 3 half-centuries at an average of 30.14. Then last year his average rose to 43.28 in fewer Test matches.

The 25-year-old played the same number of matches as he did in 2021 but in 2023 he scored 606 runs with a highest of 189 and smacked 3 fifties on the way. If England are even thinking of scripting a historic series win here for the first time in over a decade then Zak Crawley’s form will be very important.

Zak Crawley Claims England’s Agenda Is To Stay In The Present And Adapt According To Situations

The Kent-born batter has made a claim about the English team not changing their approach and trying to be at the present moment instead of anticipating as to what will happen next. Zak Crawley stated that the pitch for the 1st Test could be a spinning track or a batting pitch, it could be anything and that is why they are reluctant to jump to any conclusion even before the series starts.

“We’re not going to change our approach. It has to be judged at the time. We talk about being fully present. If you’re not present, you build up all these ideas about what it’s going to be like, what the pitches will be, but we could turn up and the first Test is on a belter of a pitch.”

We could turn up and it’s an absolutely raging turner, so you have to adapt your gameplan and play the situation. You can’t decide that until you’re out there and you’re reading the situation.” – Zak Crawley said. 

Crawley then went on to talk about his struggles of wanting quick results, something he believed was wrong and was stopping him from reaching his full potential. He said that it still happens to him and believes that whenever he has let himself free, the best version of Zak Crawley has turned up.

“I’ve struggled a lot in my career with wanting the result too much. Sometimes you have to let go and trust the process. Whenever I’ve tried too hard or wanted it too much, that’s when I feel more mistakes come. I’ve had a lot of failures and I can say, ‘Listen, I’m just going to let go’ and that’s usually when I come good.” – Crawley concluded.