For the first time in four years, the runs Zak Crawley hasn't scored are starting to matter more than the ones he has, writes Katya Witney.
The first day and a half of the first Championship game of the season in Canterbury saw double the number of centuries scored as wickets taken. Opening for Northants, Luke Proctor scored the highest-ever individual innings in a Kent v Northants fixture, and was still unbeaten when he declared – at 684-2 – with every other member of the top four having also scored centuries.
On a pitch which bore no hint of a blade of grass poking through the dull brown surface, it looked the perfect opportunity for Zak Crawley to put a marker down for his England spot. Never over the last four seasons, has Crawley’s spot as one half of England’s Test opening partnership been contingent on Championship runs. That is surely no longer the case. But a century, a big one ideally, even on a flat deck in Division Two against a team that only took 20 wickets twice last season, might have gone a long way to getting him there.
Instead, after plodding to 26 off 68 balls, Harry Conway got one to jag back in off the surface, exploiting a big booming drive which left a hefty gap between bat and pad. Crawley leant on his bat before turning to look at his pegged back off stump, bails on the floor around it, and paused before walking off the pitch. Perhaps, for Crawley at least, the runs he doesn’t score will be more consequential than the runs he does.
21.1 | Crawley goes 👋
— Northamptonshire CCC (@NorthantsCCC) April 11, 2026
Conway bowls the Kent opener and he has to go for 26.
Kent 54/3.
Watch live 👉 https://t.co/CU8uwteMyd https://t.co/P5Tqc7JbBX pic.twitter.com/natw1JrHnM
That poignance was felt more in the second innings of that game, Ben Compton hitting 114* to save the game, while Crawley gave away a leading edge for five. In themselves, those two failures on a flat deck in Canterbury made the runs Crawley didn’t score against a stronger attack in Durham last week louder than they were at the time. A week later at the same ground, while Crawley tucked his bat under his arm at the other end of the country, 21-year-old Ben McKinney scored the first double century of his career.
In the past, the runs Crawley has scored have always seemed to matter more than those he hasn’t, at least to England. His regular failures, his average hovering around 30, have been overlooked in favour of the odd impactful score here and there. Public perception has been different, and his dual failures in Perth were likely more significant to an ever despairing England fan than the runs he scored later in the series.
Those missing runs mean more now on both fronts. Shortly after Rob Key announced the findings of England’s post-Ashes inquiry, he name checked Asa Tribe as a player to watch, and if James Rew can find a way to open for Somerset and continue his consistent stream of centuries, he would be another who could take Crawley’s place.
It’s not just other options that make Crawley look more vulnerable. Key has committed to repairing England’s relationship with the counties, something that Crawley’s continued selection has perhaps played a part in fracturing. If his previous backing over those openers churning out Championship runs was justified by the continued assertion that Crawley was the opener best placed to thrive in Australian conditions, the winter blew that rationale out of the water.
Equally, Crawley embodies the perception that England have operated as a closed group under Brendon McCullum, a clique which was adjudged to have underprepared for the biggest series of their lifetime in Australia, and treated it more like stag do than an Ashes series.
It’s optics, with the backdrop of an uneasy relationship between England and the counties, and their current image problem, which pose the biggest threat to Crawley’s place. It remains to be seen how swathing England’s changes will be in their post-Ashes era, but Crawley is the easiest candidate for a blood sacrifice. Perhaps the best boost to his selection is that he’s currently averaging more for the summer than Ben Duckett. It seems improbable that England would drop both of their opening pair.
There is still a scenario that could see Crawley open against New Zealand in the opening Test of the summer. Speaking last month, Key confirmed that he wasn’t looking for “a change in philosophy” from Brendon McCullum’s second act, and nobody embodies his philosophy more than Crawley. Even if County Championship performance does matter now more than it did, no opener has, as of yet, put themself out in front of the selection race. There’s plenty of time before the first Test of the summer for that to change, or for Crawley to pull away. Even doing just enough might still edge him above the rest.
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