Zak Crawley vanquishes past ghosts and sets the England Ashes ball rolling

June 16, Birmingham, England, and it has all boiled down to this – the Ashes is back, for the first time in its full gusto since COVID-19 became a thing. The crowd is in, the Hollies stand is packed and making plenty of noise, and England, in their new Bazball avatar, hope to reclaim the urn, having not done so since 2015.

This is, after all, what many have dubbed the battle between the irresistible force that England have become against the immovable object Australia have always been. The last time these sides faced off in the Ashes, that was not the case, though.

At the Gabba, Mitchell Starc produced a sizzling yorker that breezed through Rory Burns’ defenses and told England what they were up against. One wicket does not define or alter the course of a series supposed to be as keenly contested as the Ashes. But the first blow, usually, leaves a psychological scar, and a gash that is often difficult to suture.

Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, with those ghosts hovering, walk out to a raucous reception. The Aussie fielders take their respective spots, and Pat Cummins marks out his run-up. If you were at the ground, you could feel the excitement. Even in front of television sets, the anticipation and the expectation, around this Ashes series and around the occasion, is palpable.

Cummins, hoping to recreate another famous Ashes start, runs in, and as an England fan, you would be forgiven to think of the horrors of the past. He bowls the ball on a length outside off stump. Crawley has, throughout his Test career, wafted at such deliveries and has walked back to the shed soon after.

With this particular delivery not really threatening the stumps, and this being such an apparent weakness in Crawley’s game and considering the occasion, he surely has to leave this alone, right?

If, even for a moment, you thought that that would happen, maybe you have not been watching England lately. Or more specifically, you have not been watching Crawley closely.

He throws his hands at it and absolutely creams it. The ball races away to the fence like a tracer bullet and in a trice, the ghosts of Gabba morph into ecstasy at Edgbaston.

Of course, like the Burns wicket in 2021, this is just one boundary but you could feel a current pass through Birmingham, England, and the rest of the cricketing world.

This is, after all, the sort of approach that has characterized England, and here is an opener, averaging less than 30 in Test cricket after 30-plus matches, throwing caution to the wind and wanting to fire an early warning shot, knowing fully that it could go horribly wrong.

That is what England are about, and that is what they have been hoping Crawley would become about all these years.

To say that Crawley has not fulfilled his potential so far would be an understatement. There was a massive gap between a splendid double hundred against Pakistan at Southampton and his next Test ton.

But England, sometimes to the dismay of the cricket-watching folk in England, and to the surprise of many in different parts of the globe, have stuck by him.

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England stuck by Crawley for the Ashes

Much of that has been because they feel he is too good a player to not succeed in international cricket. Glaring weaknesses exist, and that makes backing a player considerably tougher. When Crawley gets going, though, he looks like a million dollars and makes batting look ridiculously easy (pardon the cliché).

Against Australia on day one at Edgbaston, those aspects came to the fore. He punched the ball beautifully, pulled with conviction, reverse-swept Nathan Lyon for fun, and barely missed a beat until…..he was on the wrong end of a Scott Boland snorter.

Prior to that, he had also survived a non-DRS, having nicked a delivery through to Alex Carey. But with the way he was batting, and the courage and bravery he was showing, fortune was destined to favor him.

That is maybe the point of it all. Crawley may look very susceptible on occasions and consistency is not his greatest virtue. This team, though, is all about understanding and acknowledging what players bring to the fore when things actually click into gear.

It did on Friday at Edgbaston, and by virtue of that, the hosts raced out of the traps in the latest iteration of the Ashes. Of course, there is plenty of cricket to be played, and considering how Crawley’s Test career has been so far, do not be surprised if he completely goes off the boil.

That, though, is a conversation and a prospective head-scratching event for another day. The here and now is about Crawley, putting his best foot forward (quite literally), vanquishing past horrors, and firing an early Bazball warning shot at the Ashes.

It is a pity it only lasted 61 runs, 73 balls, and two hours. But it told you all you need to know about Crawley. And about how England are going to approach the next month and a half.