New Zealand quick Matt Henry’s stranglehold on England opening batter Zak Crawley is getting tighter as he removed the dashing right-hander for the fifth consecutive time in the series.
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Henry took a stunning diving catch off his own bowling from a leading edge to send Crawley on his way for 21 off 14 balls in England’s first innings of the third and final Test in Hamilton, and add further to the right-handed dasher’s misery.
Crawley has been dismissed by Henry five times for just five runs in the last 22 balls when they have faced off.
Henry also sent fellow opener Ben Duckett on his way as England reached lunch at 2/54 after New Zealand posted 347.
After the break, the Black Caps ran riot with a fiery spell from seamer Will O’Rourke (3/33) removed Jacob Bethell (12), Joe Root (32) and Harry Brook (0) in quick succession before Henry (4/48) and left arm spinner Mitchell Santner (3/7) mopped up the rest to bowl England out for 143.
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Crawley’s dismissals have come in a variety of manners including bowled, caught behind and lbw, but they have all come from fuller deliveries targeting the stumps, which has led to a chorus of calls for Crawley to be dropped.
The 26-year-old is playing his 53rd Test, and his career average sat at 30.89 before his latest failure.
Crawley has long been highly regarded by Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes for his aggressive stroke play such as when he hit Pat Cummins through the off side for four on the first ball of last year’s Ashes series or when he hit Tim Southee back over his head for six in Wellington in the first over of the Test match.
But England cricket greats and fans on social media have had enough of Crawley’s inconsistency with former opening batter Geoffrey Boycott slamming his defensive deficiencies.
“Crawley tends on average to have one superb innings and three failures and that is not good enough,” wrote Boycott in The Telegraph. “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.”
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Crawley’s place in the team could be in danger from new number three Jacob Bethell, who was unbeaten alongside Joe Root at the lunch break on day two.
Bethell smashed 96 in Wellington and, despite never scoring a first class century, the 21-year-old is highly fancied by McCullum and Stokes.
Vice-captain Ollie Pope has normally occupied first drop but had slid down to number six this series as a result of taking on wicket keeping duties to Jamie Smith’s absence due to the birth of his first child.
Smith, who debuted during this year’s English summer, has made an impressive start to his Test career with a century, and four fifties at an average of 42.46, and is likely to return for their next Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge in May.
Wisden’s Ben Gardner wrote that McCullum and Stokes’ long held argument that Crawley is in England’s best seven batters, regardless of statistics, might be wearing thin with the emergence of Bethell and Smith.
“Crawley is still in credit, and Bethell’s start, while impressive, isn’t yet persuasive, his knocks amounting to two half-centuries when England were already well ahead in the game. One big score for either in the third Test could yet tilt the scales,” Gardner said.
“But before, those who have protested Crawley’s selection have done so because they see selection differently to how McCullum and Stokes do it, pointing to runs and averages when those things don’t matter to the England team hierarchy. England’s selection philosophy is clear. They pick who they feel are their best seven batters and then figure out the order later.
“With the emergence of Smith and Bethell, the difference now, for the first time, is that Crawley might just be slipping out of that group.”
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