OLD TRAFFORD — When it works, as it did on an action-packed second day of this fourth Test, England’s opening combination of Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley is electric.
The little and large, left and right-hand combo are perfectly imperfect, yet at their best they set the tone and tempo for this England team.
Crawley, whose form this summer, and over his entire 58-Test career, has been scratchy, is the weak link in this partnership. Like Andrew Ridgeley in Wham.
Zak Crawley goes BIG against Jadeja pic.twitter.com/oPVeOU5lK6
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 24, 2025That faith has been put to the test over the past few weeks, when his highest score in four innings was 22 amid an apparent crisis of confidence in his technique.
Crawley took 14 balls to get off the mark and was never completely fluent. However, this innings will keep the selection wolf at the door for now.
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Both openers will curse themselves for failing to reach three figures, yet this was a performance that underlines why England will keep faith with this pairing until this winter’s Ashes series.
England will need more consistency when they take on Australia’s much-vaunted pace attack this winter.
It’s worth noting that when England last won in Australia during the winter of 2010-11, the opening pair of Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss averaged 78.4 runs for the first wicket.
In 2013-14, when Mitchell Johnson terrorised England during a 5-0 whitewash, the average for the opening pair of Cook and Michael Carberry was 25.
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In all, England used three opening pairs on that Covid-ravaged tour, Burns starting with Haseeb Hammed, before Crawley joined Hameed for Tests three and four and then linked up with Burns for the final match in Hobart.
The last one of those, in Sydney in January 2022, was notable for Crawley scoring a fine 77 off 100 balls in England’s second innings.
England will keep faith with a duo who now have five century partnerships together and an average 45.55 as an opening pair.
They, of course, did it Down Under. Duckett and Crawley have at least offered hope they might be able to do something similar this winter.
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