Geoffrey Boycott has criticised Zak Crawley's aggressive approach in England's second Test against New Zealand, stating that the opener's scoring inconsistency is "just not good enough".
Boycott's comments come in a column for The Telegraph following England's series-sealing win in Wellington over the weekend. While Joe Root and Harry Brook both scored centuries, and Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell and Ollie Pope all registered scores in excess of 50, Crawley was out for 17 and eight in the first and second innings respectively.
Crawley's average this year has now slipped below 30 from 13 Tests, and he hasn't passed 30 in an innings since England's first innings of the winter against Pakistan. His last Test hundred was the 189 he made against Australia in the 2023 Ashes 17 months ago. All four of his dismissals in New Zealand have been to Matt Henry, who Crawley has yet to score a run against since arriving in New Zealand.
Matt Henry’s record against Zak Crawley is extraordinary 😳
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) December 7, 2024
He’s dismissed the England opener in all four of his innings this series, and is yet to concede a single run against him 🔥
Read here ➡️ https://t.co/GhMmJAAGIp pic.twitter.com/KXLTpnhDd7
"Crawley tends on average to have one superb innings and three failures and that is not good enough," wrote Boycott. "When he is good he is very, very good but when he is bad he is awful. He carries on batting the same way and making the same mistakes, which is not smart. Far too often he encourages the opposition with an early cheap wicket and leaves his No 3 in a tough spot facing upbeat new ball bowlers. That is hard on the next guy in.
"Crawley will always be an unreliable opening bat because his defence is poor. He often has a big gap between bat and pad when defending and does not have good judgment of what to play or what to leave around off stump.
"His attitude is attack is his best form of defence so he tries to hit everything to get on top of the bowlers and be their boss. His successes are spectacular because he has a wide range of strokes and his timing is superb."
Since taking over one of England's opening spots in 2020, Crawley has averaged 31.21 across 51 matches. In contrast, since Ben Duckett became Crawley's partner at the top in 2022, he's averaged 44.68 from 27 Tests.
"Every batsman is different and should be encouraged to play their own way," wrote Boycott. "But never forget it is about how many runs you score. That is your job. England cannot keep waiting for him to improve and become more consistent."
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