The brutal truth is that Zak Crawley doesn’t offer enough
England have three problems with their top seven and Jamie Smith is the single solution to all of them. The first problem is that, in two frenetic innings at Lord’s, Zak Crawley looks scrambled and defeated.
The second problem is that Ollie Pope looks too high in the order at No 3. And the third problem is that England would like to know if Jacob Bethell can be what he is cracked up to be. The jigsaw of the England batting line-up would make a complete picture if Smith were promoted to open the batting.
On the margins of the epic twists of the Lord’s Test, Alec Stewart was telling friends Smith is good enough to do whatever is asked of him.
There is no better witness than Stewart. A solid citizen of Surrey who kept wicket in 82 Test matches for England, he was always happier as an opening batsman, in which position he averaged 44.64 in a difficult era.
Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum want their England openers to do more than take the shine off the ball. They want rapid run scoring to set the tone. Crawley and Ben Duckett are an aggressive opening pair who define the innings. When they work together, as they did when they put on 188 at Headingley, their contrasts combine into a greater whole.
The trouble is that they come together too rarely and the brutal truth, which the selectors simply ignore, is that Crawley doesn’t do enough. Of all the opening batsmen who have played long enough to score 2,500 runs, Crawley’s record is the worst.
Smith has all the power and aggression of Crawley but a better technique
Eventually, you’d have thought this has to matter. Eventually, you’d have thought they might recognise the team could be better without him. In his past 12 World Test Championship matches, Crawley’s average is 19.8. To make one man immune from the rules of performance that apply to all others is simply wrong.
Smith has all the power and aggression of Crawley but a better technique. He will be less vulnerable to early dismissals behind the wicket after a hard-handed lunge, which are the defining feature of Crawley’s career. He is already opening the batting in the one-day game and, although promoting him to the top of the order is a little unconventional, when did this England regime ever bow to convention? It would be a shame to lose Smith’s wicketkeeping, which was excellent on a pitch with low bounce at Lord’s, but there are good options behind the stumps.
In fact, moving Smith creates the perfect opportunity for Pope. It would be galling for Ben Foakes – the best wicketkeeper in the country – to fall behind not just one but two of his Surrey colleagues, but England like a counter-attacking batsman at No 7.
For long the batting star of the county scene, Pope has done better at No 3 than most, where he has more than 2,000 runs at an average of 41. But some of those runs have been soft ones, against weak opponents, and the feeling persists that he is too easy a target for the better bowlers. As a naturally attacking batsman with a busy style, he is almost the cliché-perfect wicketkeeper batsman coming in after the captain at No 7.
Moving Pope down the order creates a vacancy at No 3 which is exactly where England would like to slot in Bethell. Who really knows whether Bethell – who has barely played a game for Warwickshire – is really as good as all that, but the England selection panel believe he is, so we might as well find out. Better to do so now, surely, than in a panic in the middle of an Ashes series.
England will persist with Crawley. No doubt he will score a quick 70, at which point his supporters will pretend one more time that he is about to prove himself. But there is no need for this charade to continue.
When he is asked about England’s selection, Stokes is fond of saying that he is sure he has the best six batsmen in England. In fact, the task is to choose seven out of eight – and Smith is the man who unlocks the answer to the problem.
Photograph by Stu Forster/Getty Images
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