I was certainly braver against them, and that was on purpose – Zak Crawley on his aggressive approach in Ashes 2023

England’s opener Zak Crawley smashed the first ball of the Ashes 2023 to boundary against Australian skipper Pat Cummins and it was just a harbinger of the way the home team was going to play. Crawley admitted he was certainly brave against the Australian bowlers and he did that on purpose.

Crawley played the best knock of the Ashes when he scored a magnum opus of 189 runs off just 182 balls in the first innings of the fourth Test match at Old Trafford, Manchester. Ergo, the lanky batter played a key role in helping England take a massive lead of 275 runs. But in the end it went in vain as the match was washed due to rain on the final two days.

Crawley finished as the second highest run-getter of the series behind Usman Khawaja as he amassed 480 runs in nine innings at an average of 53.33 and a blistering strike rate of 88.72. The England opener gave solid starts along with Ben Duckett and scored two fifties and one century.

Crawley said on the Vaughany and Tuffers podcast: “I thought if I could put them under pressure a bit more, it might give me more of a chance. I was certainly braver against them, and that was on purpose. The pitches were good early in this series and thankfully it came off on a few occasions.”

The 25-year-old from Kent admitted he felt badly out of form in the series against New Zealand and thus could not get going.

“There have been times where I’ve felt badly out of nick in the game. I felt out of nick in New Zealand. More the mental block, that fear of failure. I didn’t have the right game plan against certain type of bowling, I couldn’t unlock that over a period of time.”

The youngster added there will be times when he will get out and it will look reckless given the aggressive mode he has adopted in Test matches under Brendon McCullum.

“It won’t always come off, there will be times I will get out early and it’ll look reckless. But if I play like that I think I’m better off. When I put pressure on myself I feel worse. I didn’t allow myself to do that this time.”

Crawley will look to continue the good show for England in the upcoming tour of India in 2024.