Bumrah probably be the best I have faced: Crawley

Zak Crawley has insisted England have no intention of retreating into a "negative" approach after their recent 4-1 Test series loss in India but accepted they must "pick the right moments" to absorb pressure.

England lost their first series under the red-ball leadership duo of captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum in convincing fashion earlier this month after winning the first Test in Hyderabad.

That reverse sparked a widespread debate over the merits of England's aggressive 'Bazball' style following several batting collapses, with even former New Zealand captain 'Baz' McCullum saying the team would have to "refine" their style.

“We never really lost faith and had the same attitude, as you can tell from some of our press! We had the same attitude throughout and I don't think that is arrogance. We genuinely believed in ourselves and thought we could win the series. We were in all the games. We certainly weren't in the games when I was in India last time, so we gave ourselves a good chance and we weren't quite clinical enough, like they were, to be fair,” said Crawley.

"We should have won in Ranchi to make it 2-2 and then you never know how the last one goes, but it is always hard to wrestle the momentum back. Over five days, their skills are always going to come out, and they are a phenomenal team. It was a really enjoyable tour though, we gave it a good crack, and there is a lot to learn from."

England are not playing a Test till July when they will host the West Indies, and Crawley feels that will give them time to get better and smarter. “It just needs a bit of refinement. We always talk about absorbing pressure and putting pressure back on. The last couple of years we've done the putting back on pretty well, and we've spoken about maybe picking those moments to absorb at the right times as well. We can certainly refine that.

"That's not to say we're going to get more negative. We will still try to play the way we have and try to score quickly, but just pick those moments where they're on top. We need to make sure we stay positive and don't let a tough result get in the way of what we're done really well over the last couple of years.

"(India) have won 17 home series on the spin, so it would have had to be pretty special for us to turn it over and we will not get too down on ourselves. We'll still stick to what we know but just be slightly better."

Crawley himself had a pretty good series against India, scoring 407 runs in five matches at an average of 40.70. He was England’s highest run-getter. Even in the last Ashes series, the England opener hit 480 runs @ 53.33. "Hopefully, I can push on from here but I certainly feel in a better place now than I did at the start of last year. Whenever I try to maintain [my form], I think you start getting worse, so I am always looking to improve.

 "Against spin, I was trying to get forward to smother the ball and it kind of worked for me. My head is a lot further forward than it used to be in my set-up. But mainly it's just my attitude. I am trying to embrace failure more and accepting it is part of the game. So, I'm trying to stick with that."

Talking about facing Jasprit Bumrah, who took 19 wickets in the series at an average of 16.89, Crawley said: "I love facing the best bowlers in the world. Him, Cummins, a few others, but he would probably be the best I have faced. 

"He bowls fast anyway and lets it go later, so it feels even quicker. Then it is just a weird action, so it is hard to pick up at times and he has got tremendous skill. He swings it both ways, with a slower-ball yorker, so, yeah, he's a phenomenal bowler. It was tricky but I loved it."

(With inputs from AFP)