20 May 29, 2022The Sunday Times
Cricket
Australia where, by his own
admission, he tinkered with his
technique so much that he became
confused as to how he wanted to
play. Crawley’s looseness outside off
stump has infuriated critics who
doubt whether he will achieve the
necessary self-restraint to regularly
survive the new ball.
Against all that, many who
watched Pope glide through the gears
during his hundred in South Africa
three winters ago, or Crawley stroke
his way to a double century against
Pakistan and pummel Pat Cummins
in Sydney, will not be easily
dissuaded from the view that they are
outstanding batsmen in the making.
When Key appointed McCullum as
the new Test head coach he was
essentially buying a fresh outlook
which he hoped would liberate a
group of players who had mislaid
their chutzpah. McCullum echoed
this notion during his unveiling,
when he spoke about “a freedom of
mindset” and a “relaxed style”. Hesaid: “I see guys a bit stuck by the fear
of failure.”
Key himself could hardly have
been more effusive in praise of Pope’s
potential as a batsman, ranking him
only behind Joe Root: “We feel that
Ollie Pope is the man. [He is] one of
our most talented cricketers. If we
can unlock him, which I think we
can, there’s a seriously good Test
cricketer there.”
No doubt Crawley and Pope, both
24, born 33 days apart in early 1998,
will appreciate the new regime’s
backing of youth, but their first
assignment could hardly be tougher.
New Zealand are equipped with one
of the best seam attacks: Trent Boult,
Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Kyle
Jamieson, four bowlers with a variety
of heights and angles (Boult and
Wagner are both left-armers, Boult is
5ft 11in and Jamieson 6ft 8in). Boult’s
involvement in the final stages of the
Indian Premier League probably
means he misses the first Test, with
his place going to Matt Henry.Test innings — remarkable because
before this sequence he was
averaging 44.71 (mainly at No 5, 6
or 7) and appeared to be serenely
confirming the many extravagant
predictions made on his behalf.
Things then unravelled to the point inThere will be no bigger measure of
England’s much anticipated “red-ball
reset” than how the top-order batting
fares in the New Zealand Tests
starting at Lord’s this week.
The new management team of
Rob Key, Ben Stokes and Brendon
McCullum have placed one of their
biggest bets on being able to unlock
the talent of Zak Crawley and Ollie
Pope. Crawley is earmarked to open
alongside Alex Lees, another player
with much to prove, while Pope will
go in at No 3 for the first time.
There are plenty of good judges
who, while acknowledging Crawley
and Pope’s talent, think these are not
necessarily their best positions — and
there is evidence to back that up.
Crawley has opened 25 times in
Tests, averaging 24.6 and passing fifty
only four times, on one occasion
going on to a century (in Antigua in
March). Remarkably Pope has scored
only one half-century in his past 23Simon Wilde
Crawley has opened 25 times in
Tests for England, averaging 24.6Top order
still in flux
- and Kiwis
have tools
to expose it
The fact that Stokes,
Key and McCullum
are all new to their
positions doesn’t
worry me — they
have little in the
way of baggage
B
en Stokes is 30. There are
four players in the present
England squad who are
older and who have made
more Test appearances
than him. And yet, if you
were talking about life
experiences — from having
to fend for himself as a 17-year-old at
Durham after his parents returned
home to New Zealand, to his time out
from the game last summer — you
would say that he is comfortably the
most experienced man in that team.
That has to stand him in good stead
as England captain.
The phrase “future England
captain” didn’t immediately spring to
my mind when I saw him up close for
the first time on the 2013-14 Ashes
tour, after he replaced Jonathan
Trott. “Rough diamond” were the
words that came into most people’s
heads back then, especially given his
disciplinary issues on a previous
Lions tour to Australia.
What also stood out, though, was
his competitive edge. On a tour that
went south from the last session of
day one of the first Test, he never
gave the impression of a man who
thought he was beaten. If we hadn’t
already been 2-0 down by the time hestruck a century in only his second
Test, maybe some of that competitive
edge could have infected the rest
of the team. Unfortunately, the
spirit had already started to ebb
at that point.
It was no surprise, then, that the
ECB chose him to succeed Joe Root as
Test captain. I also like that he will
bat at No 6 in this series against New
Zealand. I have always thought that is
the position which gets the most out
of him. With bowling and leadership
responsibilities, he does not need
the added pressure of coming to
the crease on the first morning of a
Test with three wickets down and
not a lot of runs on the board. In Root
and Jonny Bairstow, he has seasoned
campaigners stationed above him.
We have to back them and the top
three — despite recent experiences —
to build a sound enough platform for
him to perform on.
I would also suggest that in the
field he takes himself out of the slip
cordon and positions himself at mid-
off. There is the obvious advantage of
being able to communicate more
easily with his bowlers but it will also
give him figuratively and literally
more space from which to view the
game. He has a fine pair of hands butAlastair
Cook
Stokes was not always
captaincy material –
and that’s why he’s
perfect man to turn
Test side around
When you take on the captaincy,
you may have to do two press
conferences in the days before a Test,
and to front up each evening when
it’s going on. I realised pretty soon
that I needed to be briefed and to
have read what was being written
about me, my team, the game in
general, and sometimes even stuff
that had nothing to do with cricket.
This didn’t mean that I allowed what
was written to influence me, but it
did mean I wouldn’t be blindsided by
any questions.
The demands don’t end there. A
batsman or bowler can have a goodthe relentless concentration required
for a close-catching position can take
a lot out of a player who also has to
bowl and captain.
This won’t be the first time that he
has been in charge of an England
team but it is the first time that he is
doing so as permanent skipper.
When you are in the ranks you
usually only face the media if
individually you have had a good day,
and that’s easy. (The only time I can
recall being asked to explain a bad
day before I became captain was
when we were bowled out for 51
against West Indies in 2009.)