England batsman Zak Crawley explains why a couple of low scores won’t change his plans against Sri Lanka, defeating Dan Lawrence and Joe Root, and revealing why he’s not on social media…
We’ve got four test games away in a row now which is a huge achievement for everyone, especially since we’ve found four very different teams across those games. That shows the depth of strength that we currently have. We hope to make five wins this week.
To make it four winners in a row, we had to keep going at the top of things at 14-3 in the second innings of our first Test. It could easily have slipped away in these conditions.
We had a lot of battery to come and I always felt like we were still on top but not much would be needed – a good ball or a mistake or two and we would have been in trouble. Fortunately, Jonny Bairstow and Dan Lawrence played very well.
2:59 Dan saw us to the winning line with Jonny and I’m sure this is just the beginning of a promising career in England …
When Dom Sibley and I went out to open Sunday night, the plan was just to drown. It was very dark and there was not much time left in the day so we just wanted to take over the crease, knowing that would be easier the next day. It wasn’t going to be for us but Jonny and Dan saw us home.
The situations I faced in the second innings were up there with the most difficult, if not the most difficult, I have encountered in test cricket. In South Africa, the problem was the speed of their attack and the skill of Vernon Philander but in terms of spinning, that was the hardest thing I had in my life.
It was a big challenge. I didn’t come through unfortunately but I’ve learned a lot about my game and I’ve gained a bit of confidence from it going forward in a weird way.
Sri Lanka vs England
January 22, 2021, 4:00 am
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Supporting myself
I still support my game plan despite a low score or two – I don’t change too much, I have to make things better. That’s how I look at it.
I took my wicket away in the first innings when I was feeling very comfortable, and in the second innings I got some luck with a falling grip even before I got out. If it was my night I would be alive, but it wasn’t going to be. I still feel good about my game.
0:51 This is a compelling sight for me but this time I grabbed my pad all the way through …
Everyone makes mistakes, you just need to limit the number of them. I made a mistake in the first innings but I think looking over a midfielder against the spinner is a very strong view and I would probably play it a- again if I were in the same situation. I need to play better.
I grabbed my rod with my stick all the way through and bent the ball up to the field at midway. I was very happy with myself and thought at the time that I probably didn’t need to do it.
But you have to put a little bit of pressure back on the mattresses, which we saw Joe Root do pretty amazingly. He always put Sri Lankan archers at their fingertips. You have to throw a pound or two back in those conditions and that is what I was trying to do. I hope I can put a better execution this week.
0:28 Dan showed in his first innings how you can’t let them have mattresses in their own way!
Batting against the spinners with a new ball is a different challenge to the old one. The ball tends to slip on a bit more, so I’ve learned to play for the straight one. Then if a ball spins past the edge, I’m fine with that. You have to accept those things.
Then it’s about changing as the ball gets older and softer and starts turning more regularly. The main thing I learned is to think regularly. You can’t rest mentally, you have to put it on when assessing the conditions as they change very quickly here.
I have been working against spinning with a new ball, before the first Test as well as after, because I always felt that that was something that Sri Lanka would hit us with.
Jack Leach and Dom Bess have been bowling in the nets with a new ball, but our mattresses and mattresses are very different. The Sri Lankans get a lot of side spinning, but our boys generate a lot more side spinning. It’s something I have to be prepared for when the game comes.
Moeen is back with us now after her quarantine. He ‘s won a game or two of chess since he’ s back so we have to get rid of him there, but he ‘s been in good shape and you wouldn’t know he’ s been a player. alone for two weeks. His dry humor I think is very funny as long as that continues.
Zak Crawley on Moeen Ali
Aura Lawrence and what we can learn from Root
Dan had a great start, getting 73 and then taking us home with Jonny. He’s just a really good player. You can see the confidence he had in his own game and it didn’t look weird at all – even though I’m sure there would be some nerves on the inside.
He has a great aura about when he bats and I think this is the start of a promising career for him. It was great to play like that for the first time in difficult situations.
1:29 Mahela Jayawardene, a Sri Lankan legend, was captivated by the mind of English ruler Dan Lawrence
Then our skipper delivered a super class with his double hundred. I think some people let Rooty out of that main group, along with Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson, but I think that easily belongs to that.
He plays half of his games in England, and you might say that that is the hardest place to bat in the world when the conditions suit the archers .
Some people may look at the average of these others being a bit higher running and say they are better than him but Joe is a very versatile and easily played player as well as the players that, in my opinion.
3:05 Michael Atherton explains why England captain Joe Root is such a good spinning player as he analyzes his stunning first double against Sri Lanka
We can learn a lot from the way Joe played in that first double. He swept it nicely but the main thing I caught was the way he hit singles all over the innings and got himself down the other end. It was very difficult for the spinners to bowl it.
Joe’s knock came after day one where everything went our way. The sweep into Jonny’s leg that defeated Jos Buttler to capture him; ran out of Leachy’s hand – some were strangely eliminated.
We knew the pitch wasn’t as bad as 135 all out. We then had to bring our heads down and get a big lead because we knew if we were running anything over 100 it would be difficult – as proved in our second innings.
Sri Lanka didn’t have the day they were looking for but they fought really hard after that and if they play like that again in the second Test, we have to play really well to beat them . We expect a difficult game.
Hopefully our Sri Lanka single fan, Rob Lewis, is back for that game. He must have had a sore throat because he was great at the fort last week – he knew most of the songs of Barmy Army and he sang them very loud. Support in the ground is very rare these days so we would love to see it again.
There has been talk of a four-day test cricket but games we have seen recently – India v Australia this week, our win over South Africa in Cape Town this winter – last year – shows the importance of keeping it five days. I watched the Australia vs India Test and it was an amazing match of cricket. Two big sides going there over five days, just what people want to see.
Zak Crawley on test cricket
Why am I not on Twitter
In a rarity for today’s players, perhaps, I’m not on social media. I once had Twitter and I felt like people had too much access to me, which I didn’t think I needed.
I also found myself spending a lot of time showering through bits and pieces online and decided the less time I spent on my phone the better. Being on before a day of play can drain your energy significantly.
You don’t want to read too many positive things and get too many big things or too many negative things and get down on yourself, so I find out from Twitter helping me stay level, helping me stay bubbles and with my thoughts instead of the others.
Of course I trust people I talk to and those are the opinions I want to hear, so I don’t look too far out of that circle.
Watch day one of the second Test between Sri Lanka and England, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 4am on Friday.