Former captain Michael Vaughan said Zak Crawley “frustrates the life out of me”, but England should persevere with the opener.
Crawley began the final Ashes Test as England’s leading run-scorer in the series, then was out for 16 on the first morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The 27-year-old altered his technique for the finale, shifting his guard across the stumps. He was out lbw when he played across a straight ball from Australia’s Michael Neser.
“He looks such a good player – and then just gets out,” Vaughan told the Test Match Special podcast.
“The ball that got him out should not have got him out. It was just a ball which nipped back slightly and he played it too square on the on side. There must be something in his concentration.”
Crawley began the Ashes series with a pair in the first Test in Perth, facing only 11 deliveries in the match.
Since then he has made scores of 76 and 44 in the second Test in Brisbane, and a battling 85 in the second innings of the third Test in Adelaide.
The Kent man’s 37 at the beginning of England’s run-chase in the fourth Test in Melbourne was vital to the tourists recording their first victory in Australia for 15 years and cutting the series deficit to 3-1.
“Zak Crawley frustrates the life out of me,” said Vaughan, who captained England to their famous Ashes triumph of 2005.
“His concentration levels are not the strongest. If you go to the start of the series where he played the big booming drives, those drives have gone away now. He’s not chasing the ball outside off stump.
“But today I was watching him and that should not get you out as a quality opening batter.”
In Sydney, Crawley returned to the ground where he made an impressive 77 in the fourth Test of England’s previous Ashes tour in 2021-22 – an innings that kickstarted his career.
He has now opened the batting in 103 Test innings and returned an average of 30.82 – the lowest of any batter in Test history to have as many opportunities at the top of the order.
But Vaughan, who made three centuries as an opener in England’s Ashes tour of 2002-03, believes England should persevere with Crawley in the aftermath of this latest series defeat in Australia.
“I hear fans around the world saying Crawley averages 30, but there’s a bigger average in him than he’s giving at the moment,” said Vaughan. “It’s just concentration.
“I know there is a lot more in the tank and I do think England have to stay with him.
“The movement he had today was fantastic but he needs to understand the concentration levels required at this kind of level to go on and average 40 to 45 over the course of the next two or three years.
“I think he could do if he can find that concentration.”
