by The thought occurred to me when England’s eventual failed rout began in Visakhapatnam: I haven’t heard such a joke in a while. You probably know it, the one that has been doing the rounds for quite some time. You could be anywhere in the world, turn on your phone and find that England were 20-odd for two with Joe Root coming to the rescue.
The makeover of Bazball has done many things, but one of the main changes is the establishment of a fully functional open partnership. When Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley walked out in the final session to start the road to 399, the big question was not how many wickets England would lose in a tricky late passage, but how many runs they would score from the previous target. the close Such was a reflection of the clear identity of the Test team but also the reason for the excellence of the two so far.
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The numbers have been plenty since Crawley and Duckett joined Pakistan at the end of 2022. Their first partnership was a mammoth 233 on a flat in Rawalpindi, 174 of which came before lunch. The average as a partnership is hovering just below 50, and they are doing well themselves, too. Duckett averages 49.65 in his second match as a Test cricketer, while Crawley’s is 43.37 over his last 13 Tests. They are both in a hurry, and their strikeout rates are over 85.
The next Test at Rajkot, however, will have the most impressive figures after that. Two more innings as a pair will take them to a combined 27, making them England’s longest Test opening partnership since Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook bowled together more than a decade ago. Rory Burns and Dom Sibley slugged it out for 26 innings, but they played a very different game from these two.
It is worth remembering the revolving door of success after Strauss’ retirement in 2012, players brutally killed after a few narrow scores, and Cook at the other end for a few more years, apparently wondering if he would get He loved again. There were the older members who had spent their time in county cricket (Nick Compton, Michael Carberry), and the white hurlers who had to do it against the reds (Alex Hales, Jason Roy). There were the men down the order who were tasked with solving the problem from within (Root, Moeen Ali), and the men who were quick to the first ton but didn’t make it over the summer (Adam Lyth, Sam Robson).
Burns offered a touch of stability after Cook’s departure but was forever questioned about his technique at home, losing his spot after the 2021-22 Ashes. Crawley, his leading partner at the end of that humiliation, survived. In fact, for a while, that was all he did, staying in the XI despite the regular events behind him, smashing out 267 against Pakistan a remnant of the long-forgotten pandemic. When the first summer under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum came to an end, it was Crawley’s partner Alex Lees who fell, despite having more contact over seven home Tests (Lees 25.15 to Crawley’s 23). McCullum claimed that inconsistency was expected from the opening stroke, that Crawley was there to “follow big moments”. But the optics were not great, all this love and opportunity for a player whose long-time mentor, Rob Key, was now in charge of the England team.
Duckett’s introduction seems to have been Crawley’s turn, although he may have needed some time to adjust to the new way. “Even last year to a certain extent,” Crawley told Wisden Cricket Monthly shortly after the 2023 Ashes, “with Baz and Stokes coming in, I didn’t quite buy into it, and it wasn’t until the winter here I decided to play my own game and be more aggressive. I wish I had done it a little earlier in my career.”
Together, what happens when. Crawley, who is 6ft 5in, puts his front foot forward and puts it straight after a dreamy one: Duckett, working in a different climate at 5ft 7in, will glance at anything he sees outside. There’s also the right-left aspect to deal with, making the bowler’s current migraine all the more painful. And they have done the hard work, moving bravely free before they had records to speak of. Now that they have shown what they can do, the loose dismissals can be easily forgiven.
They are off to a good start in India, where the threat is less significant in the early exchanges. Jasprit Bumrah is more of a danger when he sweats while going backwards, and his new-ball partners Mohammed Siraj and Mukesh Kumar have been largely on the lookout. There were three stands worth at least 50, the outlier being a partnership of 45 inside 10 others. Duckett always has a useful start; Crawley scored a pair of magnificent 70s for himself in the last Test. And then suddenly it hits you: these two, dealing with more shots than a student night out, are the consistent ones.
The argument could be that England could almost do with them going the other way, recalling the words McCullum said about Crawley a few years ago. A couple of low scores will be forgotten if either of them can deliver a knock that not only decorates innings but takes the game and the series forward. But maybe this is just old-timer-in-the-studio chatter, traditional ideas about how nice the fifties beat you all. This much, of course, is not really done traditionally.
So far, this combination is clearly working. After ten years of regularly showing up to top nurses and door dancers, he will.
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