England opener Zak Crawley is happy with his counter-attacking century in the 1st innings of the crucial 4th test in Manchester. The 25-year-old played a high-risk game on the Day 2 of the game, which helped their team to be in a comfortable position of 384-4 at the end of Day 2’s play.
Ben Stokes-led side is well on top at the end of the Day 2 play, as they batted brilliantly in the 1st innings with an aggressive mindset looking to score quick runs. Zak Crawley was the star performer for England with the bat, as he smashed 189 runs including 21 fours and 3 sixes at a strike rate of 103.85 to keep up the scoring rate of the team on Day 2.
Speaking to the media ahead at the end of Day 2’s play, Zak Crawley was happy with his team’s performance in the 1st innings so far and admitted that he got little luck in his innings of 189 runs on Day 2 and revealed that the coach and captain want him to make an impact for the team playing at the top of the order and elated by innings against Australia in 4th test.
“Today was a good day for us. We are in a good position as a team, It was good fun. I rode my luck at times but hit some good shots along the way. I do doubt myself at times but I have to say ‘keep being me’.
“That is the way I play. I am quite streaky but then I go on a run. They [coach and captain] told me to go out and have an impact at the top of the order. Sometimes I am going to have streaks of low scores because I’m taking a punt, but thankfully today it came off,” Zak Crawley said.
Zak Crawley is an integral part of England’s batting order, particularly his ability to provide quick-fire starts to their innings over the last few years. The recent blistering century helped him to break into the top run-getter in the Ashes 2023 in England.
I Haven’t Been Consistent, But I Think I’ve Shown That, At My Test – Zak Crawley
Zak Crawley believes that if try to be more consistent then he may not have a day like this in test cricket scoring a free-flowing 189 runs in a single day of the game and is pretty happy with his performance throughout his career and reckons that they would be criticism about his consistency but he would like to continue the same kind of approach going forward.
“They don’t want me to lose days like today, If I try to be more consistent, maybe I wouldn’t have a day like today. I much prefer this, a few low scores and then a big one. [Criticism] is definitely fair, because I haven’t been consistent, but I think I’ve shown that, at my best, I’m good enough for this level. I was pleased with how it went. That was more my template,” Zak Crawley added.
Australia found no answers to the exploits of Zak Crawley as they found themselves in a shell in most of his innings before the England opener dragged one onto the stumps of Cameron Green falling just 11 runs short of his first double hundred Ashes test series.