London [UK]: England batter Zak Crawley thinks that his game will become more aggressive with time, however, he still backs playing good shots and picking the right moments.
After being the leading run-scorer in the Ashes 2023 for England, Crawley featured in the Hundred tournaments for London Spirit, where he scored 30 off 15 balls, contributing to the team’s win over Trent Rockets at Lord’s.
After the successful Test series, he would now look to repeat the same performance in white-ball cricket as well.
“Obviously you’ve got to keep up and the game’s getting more aggressive each year, so you try and keep up with that: I certainly feel like my game will get more aggressive as the years go on. But at the moment, it’s still about playing good shots and picking the right moments to score,” Crawley said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
With an average of 28.26 from his first 34 Tests, Crawley entered the 2023 Ashes with his place in England’s lineup under serious threat. Six weeks later, having proven himself against an Australian attack, he finished the series as their leading run-scorer.
“I try to keep it pretty similar, I play similar shots, just a bit more aggressive and probably a bit more aerial,” he added.
“I don’t feel any different. I am just the bloke who scored runs a couple of weeks ago.”
Crawley said on his life after the Ashes.
“I haven’t played it too much in recent times, but before I played for England, I used to play it a lot more. I’ve been trying to work on it and bring it back in a little bit more – and hopefully [it will] free up a couple of other areas to score,” he added.
During the Ashes series, Crawley was seen practising reverse-sweep in the nets to use it against Nathan Lyon in the series.
Crawley said, “Lyon gets lovely shape on the ball, so I felt like he was OK to reverse-sweep outside off,” Crawley explained, speaking at the launch of KP Snacks’ community cricket pitches initiative. “It was something I wanted to play against him. Obviously he only played two Tests in the end but hopefully, having done that work on it, it’ll come to fruition in the Hundred.”
