In the moment of elation, the one where a dream was fulfilled, everything that had gone before flashed through Zak Crawley’s mind.
“I saw all the nets I’d done in the past, all the times I’d gone on my own to hit some balls, and it all seemed worth it,” he said.
“You do question yourself when you can’t buy a run, if you would have been better off doing something else.”
Crawley’s dazzling century on the opening day of the third Test against Pakistan was a spectacular confirmation of his right to play at the highest level.
There had been glimpses before. The 22-year-old had managed three half-centuries in his seven previous Tests, all of them aesthetically pleasing, even if there was the suspicion a loose shot or frustrating dismissal was never too far away.
This, though, 171 with the potential of more to come, was a highlight reel of 360-degree scoring, doing as much to blow away the dangerous Pakistan attack as the howling wind that swept through Southampton.
It was also a vindication of a selection based as much on potential as anything else. First picked at the end of 2019, Crawley has a first-class average of little more than 30.
Ed Smith had seen something in a man who played for the same Kent cricket club, Sevenoaks Vine, as the national selector and went to the same school, Tonbridge, which also counts Colin Cowdrey, all three members of the band Keane and Test Match Special statistician Andy Zaltzman amongst its former pupils.
“I feel like I had a lot to prove, and I still do,” said Crawley. “I still feel like I’m early in my career and learning every time I go out to bat.
“I definitely feel more comfortable in myself now I’ve scored a hundred, but I still have plenty of hard work to do to prove myself at this level.”
Not that Crawley has ever shied away from grafting, with the work ethic setting him aside from his peers at Sevenoaks Vine, where they are currently clearing a space on the clubhouse wall in order to hang one of his England shirts.
Perhaps it is apt that another former Vine player is Australia’s Steve Smith, the premier Test batsman in the world and a man with an unquenchable thirst for hitting ball after ball.
“What marked him out was his work ethic and determination,” said Vine chairman Andy Richardson.
“He obviously had bags of talent, but there were a number of other youngsters who had just as much at that age. The difference between him and all of them was he knew what he wanted.”
As a teenager, Crawley spent time in India to learn how to play spin. At 18, he went to play for Wembley Districts in Western Australia, notching six half-centuries in 15 innings.
Not only did he prove himself with the bat, but also on the golf course.
“He wiped my mates and I off the park,” said club secretary Sam Bouffler. “He is, though, a terrible poker player and that’s where we got him back.”
It is in Perth where Crawley has one of his most trusted batting advisors, Neil Holder, the mentor of former Australia opener and current coach Justin Langer.
He still returns to visit Holder whenever he can.
“I love the way he talks about the game,” said Crawley. “I try to see him every year and I’ve gone back four or five times.”
Advice closer to home comes from former Kent skipper Rob Key, who Crawley tries to see once a month.
There is also the benefit of living in a flat that overlooks Kent’s Canterbury home – Crawley has previously said he was inspired by Johan Cruyff living near to Ajax’s old De Meer ground. Flat-mate and team-mate Grant Stewart is the man who accompanies Crawley to the nets.
If it was all of these times that came to Crawley as he reached three figures in Southampton, the rest of us were pondering the sheer class of the hundred runs that had come before.
A tall figure, Crawley crouches over his bat with his backside pointed in the direction of square leg. He has a bat twirl that Alec Stewart would be proud of.
Four taps, then a bat raised towards second slip. Crawley had previously said that his most difficult opponent was Mohammad Abbas, Pakistan’s relentless interrogator. Here, he answered with steps down the pitch and stride so big it seemed like he was closer to the bowler than his own stumps.
The front elbow is high, the timing enough to make a metronome jealous. There were shots all around the wicket, no corner of Southampton left untouched.
When Crawley wanted the ball to go to the boundary, it did so willingly, perhaps because it was asked with so much class, and it disappeared with a satisfying click.
There was a sticky period before lunch when his scoring was slowed and wide deliveries were occasionally chased. There was a half-chance drilled back to bowler Fawad Alam on 159. That was the closest to danger Crawley came.
In an England team that is still being assembled, Crawley had yet make a place his own.
Before the second Test, he had to explain on BBC Radio 5 Live that, in fact, he is not the son of former England batsman John.
Zak has now made his name. Another piece of England’s puzzle may have just fallen into place.
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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