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Zak Crawley has not had many quiet days since touching down in Australia. A pair in Perth left the opener under an uncomfortable spotlight, but he answered well on day one of the second Test in Brisbane, stroking 76 from 93 balls and helping England reach 325 for 9 by stumps.
The start was wobbly – 5 for 2 after Mitchell Starc removed Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope with the new Kookaburra – yet Crawley pushed through the early nerves and, briefly, the humid morning shadows. A crisp cover-drive off Starc delivered his first runs of the series and set the tone for an innings that contained 11 boundaries and not much fuss.
“I did feel good, to be honest,” Crawley told TNT Sports. “I felt much better than Perth. I was just trying to keep it simple, just trying to score straight on the leg side, and then if it was really full, maybe on the off side. Yeah, I was happy with my knock.”
Crawley’s calmness outside off stump was noticeable. England’s coaches had spoken all week about tightening that channel, and the right-hander seemed to buy in. He left whenever length and line allowed, forcing the bowlers to stray straighter. Michael Neser eventually found a glove with a short ball soon after lunch, cutting short the fight-back, but the damage to Australia’s plans was done.
“I think it’d have felt a long break if I’d have got two hundreds, to be honest,” he laughed when asked about the seven-day gap after the Perth defeat. “It was big old gap after a two-day game. But yeah, it’s a good chance to get some practice in. And I felt comfortable. I felt calm today, and managed to settle the nerves. So I was pleased with how I played.”
England, sent in on a surface shaved to three millimetres of grass on match morning, owed the bulk of their final total to Joe Root. The former captain, still without a century in Australia until now, finished unbeaten on 135. His late-evening alliance of 61 with Jofra Archer (32*, a career-best) dragged the tourists past 300 and left the home side mildly frustrated as the floodlights flickered on.
“I had a clear plan and I stuck to it,” Crawley added, reflecting on Root’s template as much as his own. “There were still a couple of loose shots in there, as I tend to do, but got away with them, and I played nicely down the ground as well. By trying to score on the leg side, that made me leave a bit better outside off with the extra bounce today, and then when I got in, the ball started doing a bit less.”
Starc ended with 3 for 63, while Neser’s double strike after lunch checked England’s middle order. Josh Hazlewood bowled with his usual nagging length, and Travis Head’s occasional off-spin even teased out Tom Hartley. Yet the pitch flattened as the heat built, underlining why Root was happy to call correctly at the toss.
“The last few days, it’s been really green here. So we all thought it’s going to be a green nipper again. And they obviously shaved it this morning, so it looked like a great wicket to bat on, with the overheads as well,” Crawley said. Still, the opener admitted a tinge of regret: “I was gutted to get out when I did, the pitch was just getting a bit flatter there. But obviously we finished the day well with Rooty and Jof at the end there. So it’s good day.”
Perspective will come when Australia bat. If the surface continues to ease, England may feel a batter short, particularly given the reliance on Archer, still working back to full pace after injury. Conversely, any morning movement could bring Chris Woakes and Ollie Robinson straight into the contest.
Former England batter Mark Butcher, speaking on local radio, described Crawley’s innings as “an exercise in controlled aggression”, adding that the 26-year-old “showed he can adapt when the ball is doing plenty”.
For all the talk, Crawley knows the story of the tour is undecided. England still trail 1-0 in the four-match series, Root is still doing most of the heavy lifting, and Australia’s top order has been in oddly obliging form only in bursts. Tomorrow’s first hour, with the shadows again short and the ball likely to seam, will say more about the value of 325 than any press-box theorising.
Even so, Crawley’s knock, flawed in places yet defiantly assertive, felt significant. A week ago he could scarcely buy a run; in Brisbane he sold Australia’s bowlers a reminder of his threat. Whether it stands up over the next four days is another question, but it has at least put England in the match, and the opener back in the conversation for the right reasons.
