NEWS
Follow UsZak Crawley is going through the roughest of patches with the bat at the moment. The right-hander was dismissed by Matt Henry for the sixth time in a row as his more than disappointing New Zealand tour ended with another dismal performance on December 16 (Monday).
Crawley averaged 1.7 against Matt Henry in the series, who dismissed him astonishingly 6/6 times. He ended the series with an average of 8.66, not crossing the 25-run mark even once.
But in Marcus Trescothick, England’s assistant coach, the opener has found an individual ready to back him to the hilt.
"It's always tough when someone gets something over you, and you find it challenging and you've got to come up with plans. I had similar situations in my time when I was playing against other oppositions,” Trescothick said at the end of Day 3 of the third and final Test of the three-match series about Crawley having trouble against Henry.
"You go away when you've got the opportunity, which he has now, to try and think about it before next time they come up against each other,” suggested the former England batter.
Crawley's scores in his last 10 Test innings read 5, 21, 8, 17, 1, 0, 2, 29, 3 and 27. He has not hit a century since July 2023 and averages 30.51 in Tests, which is the lowest among all England openers to have played 40 or more Tests and scored more than 2000 runs in the opening position.
But even after such middling numbers, Trescothick said that England are ready to back Crawley in all conditions. "I think the important part of this is to remember we're very much focussed on him being the opening batter for a good period to come. We've seen the damage that he does and how he goes about it,” he said.
The England assistant coach added that the 26-year-old is a strong character who is doing everything he can to get out of this torrid phase.
"I don't want to give you too much about how he goes about it in the changing room because it's the private area of what we have… but he's a strong character.
"Although it's challenging when it's like this when someone gets you under the pump, it's tough, but he'll find a way. And we'll help him find a way to get back to that point,” added Trescothick.
The third Test is inconsequential in the sense that England have already won the series by winning the first two games, and none of the two teams are in contention for the World Test Championship final. New Zealand have set a target of 657, and England are 18/2 in their second innings at the end of Day 3 at Seddon Park, Hamilton.
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