SELECTION DILEMMA
Crawley looked more assured with each innings after his debut in New Zealand © Getty
In the year 2000, The Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts, established seven Millennium Prize Problems in a bid “to elevate in the consciousness of the general public the fact that in mathematics, the frontier is still open.” Mathematicians had unsuccessfully grappled with the seven problems for decades and a US$1 million prize was offered for solving each one.
Twenty years on, only one of the seven has been solved. A Russian, Dr. Grigoriy Perelman, finally managed to work out the Poincare Conjecture in 2010, a problem which had been befuddling mathematicians for more than a century. “It is a major advance in the history of mathematics that will long be remembered,” James Carlson, President of CMI, said when handing over the US$1 million to Perelman.
For the best part of eight years, since the retirement of Andrew Strauss, England’s top-order batting has appeared to be a similarly unsolvable puzzle. Indeed, perhaps the ECB should have asked the Clay Mathematics Institute to add it to their list, offer up a million-dollar prize, and see if the world’s best mathematical minds could suddenly come up with a solution for the “How not to be 30 for 3 Conjecture”.
However, at long last, there seems to be some cautious reasons for optimism. England are approaching the Test series against West Indies next month with an unfamiliar selection dilemma. Instead of the usual ‘Who the hell are we going to pick?’ that has been the case since Strauss, and then Jonathan Trott, retired it is now ‘Who the hell are we going to leave out?’ They have four decent options for three top-order spots. It will probably be a strange feeling for England’s selectors.
Ed Smith, James Taylor, and Chris Silverwood will consider that there is a case for each of Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Joe Denly and Zak Crawley to be selected for the first Test at the Ageas Bowl on July 8. Of the four, Burns is the most certain starter after establishing himself at the top of the order with a series of decent displays, and two hundreds over the past eighteen months. Fully fit after recovering from the injury he sustained playing football on the tour to South Africa, he is sure to open the batting.
Each of Crawley, Sibley and Denly have had their moments too, and were the top three who helped England to three Test wins in a row in South Africa. Sibley made a maiden Test hundred in that series while Crawley looked more assured with each innings after a debut in New Zealand. Denly, while averaging just 30 from his 14 Tests to date, has proved admirably durable at a time when England’s top order is still not strong enough to turn its nose up at a good old fashioned dose of durability.
An educated guess would suggest Sibley will partner Burns and one of the two Kent men, Crawley or Denly, will bat at three. The competition for places will certainly give an edge to England’s pre-series training camp in Southampton, which got underway in earnest on Thursday (June 25). “I don’t feel like the decision has been made yet,” Crawley said. “I definitely feel like the following couple of weeks, in nets and the warm-up game, are a good chance to stake my claim and put my first foot forward.
“The way I see it, they will pick the best three players in form from what they see in the next couple of weeks. If I am in good nick in the next couple of weeks I will give myself a good chance. If I am in bad nick then I’ve got very little chance. I’m just concentrating on my own game and trying to get myself in really good touch so they can maybe be impressed with what they see and pick me in the side.”
Crawley and Denly have been good friends at different stages of their careers. Denly, at 34, is experienced and in his second, and final, coming as an England cricketer after a career which has travelled the full spectrum of highs and lows. Crawley is 12 years Denly’s junior and just starting out, wide-eyed, and, as has yet, not had a significant career setback. Normally on the same side, for the next two weeks, both will be competing with the other.
“It is probably slightly odd if I’m honest,” Crawley admitted. “I get on really well with Joe and I wish him every success and ideally we’d both play and then play together for a long while. That said, he’s desperate to play for England, as too am I, and we’ll still be good friends whatever happens. We’re both desperate to play for sure.”
Joe Root, the captain, will hope the increased competition drives all four players on to greater heights. While the depth is developing, only Sibley averages more than 33, and England’s top order remains very much a work in progress. The solution to the top order puzzle looks to be in sight but, as the mathematicians attempting to solve the Millennium Prize Problems will tell you, it’s best to be wary of false dawns. Each player has plenty yet to prove.
“All the way through my career there’s been competition, right from when I was a 10-year-old, all the way up to now,” said Crawley. “That’s always improved me as a player, to try to get better than the people you’re competing against. I think it will be the same here. Even if I don’t get the call-up that I want, I’ll only improve as a player because of it. It would be good for the England side if it continues for a long while.”
The intra-squad warm-up match, which begins on July 1, could be viewed as a shootout for the top order spots but Smith has already said that one match would not be the sole basis for selection for the first Test. “You know what cricket is like, someone gets a bad decision or a really good ball and suddenly they’ve got a low score, it’s pretty hard to judge someone on that,” Crawley said.
It means, therefore, that each net session, each fielding practice, each gym session is an opportunity to impress. “I think the whole three-week period leading up to the Test will be where they are looking at it,” Crawley adds. “Runs in the game won’t hurt your standing in the side but I think they’ll be looking at the broader picture.”
The broader picture of Crawley as a Test match batsman is encouraging. His first five innings in Test cricket were all an improvement on the one that went before, suggesting an ability to learn and adapt, while he registered his first half-century in the first innings of the fourth Test at the Wanderers. “I did actually feel much more comfortable with every knock. It’s bit of a cliche but I really did,” he said.
“I have never been that nervous in my life when I was walking out to bat in New Zealand. It was a little bit better in Cape Town and by the time we got to Johannesburg, I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable in my own skin. I don’t think it is a coincidence it happened. I think it was my mental state.”
He started the tour to Sri Lanka in March strongly too, making scores of 43, 91 and 105 in the two warm-up matches before the players were called home because of Covid-19. “It would have been frustrating if I hadn’t got any runs, to leave a Test tour early when it looked like I had a decent chance of playing,” he said. “It was immensely frustrating but definitely the right decision. But I absolutely loved the whole winter. It was a great experience. I felt like I learnt loads.”
England learnt a lot about all four top-order candidates this winter too. A longstanding weakness, it appears that a top-three worth its name could be emerging. But time will tell whether this is one of those rabbit holes that mathematicians detest or, finally, the coming together of a solution that will be widely acclaimed.
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