Zak Crawley insists he didn’t consciously adapt his approach during England’s decisive defeat against Australia in Adelaide.
Kent opener Crawley top scored with a durable 85 but it wasn’t enough for Ben Stokes’ side, who fell 83 runs short of a record-breaking run-chase of 435, as Australia moved into an unassailable 3-0 lead to retain the Ashes.
Crawley faced 151 deliveries – 101 of them dot balls – and spent more than four hours at the crease in an apparent shift to England’s approach.
But 27-year-old Crawley insisted: “I wasn’t purposely going a bit slower.
“They bowled well, they didn’t give me a lot early, and I was trying to play every ball on its merits.
“It certainly wasn’t on purpose and I certainly didn’t change my technique. I was just trying to ‘see ball and hit ball’.”
Crawley insisted the team’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach under head coach Brendon McCullum – as well as his own – still remains part of their game-plan.
He said: “They have bowled very well and haven’t given us a lot.
“If you look at Scott Boland as just one of them, he very rarely misses so it’s hard, perhaps, to play the way we have done in the past.
“They have to get credit for that. They set good fields. It’s an attritional style of cricket over here and it’s not as easy to score quickly.”
All manner of questions have been asked of managing director – and former Kent captain – Rob Key, McCullum, skipper Stokes and his players with international futures on the line.
But on his fourth-innings knock, Crawley said: “If anything, I felt really relaxed. I think that’s why I played nicely.
“I was just trying to take the scoreboard out of it. That’s something we talk about a lot so I felt quite calm.”
A notable inclusion to Crawley’s repertoire, especially in his 68-run stand with Harry Brook, was sweep and reverse-sweep shots against spinner Nathan Lyon.
“We swept a couple early and the reverse felt better once we got the field where we wanted on the leg-side,” he explained. “There were less fielders there so, if you were to top-edge one, there was only that guy at point.
“The reverse is premeditated – and so is the sweep. Sometimes, you see it outside off.
“I can’t speak for the other guys but all my ones were premeditated.”
Crawley’s 85 backed up his 76 in the first innings of England’s eight-wicket defeat in the second Test at Brisbane, having got a pair in the first match in Perth.
But Crawley, who isn’t on social media, said: “I don’t listen to any outside noise – that helps.
“I felt like I was hitting the ball pretty well before Perth – and two ducks doesn’t change that. They were two pretty average shots but it doesn’t change that I felt in good nick.
“I tried to stick with that and play the same way. Obviously, I’ve wanted more from myself.
“I always want big scores that are going to change the course of the game and, while I batted nicely, I haven’t managed to do that, which is disappointing.”
While the former Tonbridge School pupil concedes England haven’t delivered, Crawley thinks Australia deserve credit for how they have performed.
He said: “You’re always looking to get better and to find ways you can compete better. I do like to keep it simple, though, and I do think they have just been better than us.
“A lot of the time, especially in England, we kind of look internally and go ‘What could we have done better?’. But they haven’t allowed us to do that.
“They have played really well. Obviously, we could have been better – that’s a given – but they have made it very hard for us. They’re a top team in their own conditions.”
It means the Boxing Day fourth Test in Melbourne is now something of a dead rubber and so, too, will be the fifth Test at Sydney, which starts on Saturday, January 3.
But that’s not how either team will be viewing the games.
“There will still be plenty to play for,” said Crawley, who has 214 runs at an average of 35.66 in the series. “We’ll definitely view it like that.”
