"I wanted to get it away": Zak Crawley recalls first ball four in 2023 Ashes

England Test opener Zak Crawley revealed that he intended to make an impact on the first delivery of the Ashes in 2023 when he slammed a boundary of the very first ball of the series

England Test opener Zak Crawley revealed that he intended to make an impact on the first delivery of the Ashes in 2023 when he slammed a boundary of the very first ball of the series. England Test captain Ben Stokes chose to bat in the opening Test of the 2023 Ashes at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Australia skipper Pat Cummins bowled the first over in which Crawley hit the opening ball of the 2023 Ashes for four through cover-point.

Cummins started with a solid length ball well outside off stump. Crawley creamed the ball to the cover-point boundary. "It was certainly a little bit in the back of my mind that I wanted it to get the first one away. Baz [Brendon McCullum] always talks about chasing great moments. I thought that I was opening you know. I would be good and probably facing the first ball be a good chance to have the same impact. So certainly it was in the back of my mind. But you know when you get Pat Cummins there and I kind of mentioned it to the couples of the guys. And then Cummins suddenly started at the top...I started to get really nervous but I thought that it was in my area so I'm going to have a part of it," Crawley told Sky Sports.

Zak Crawley hopes to play a more consistent role in the white-ball side and feels that the 50-over and T20 formats are "quite suited" for his style of play. Since making his debut for England in 2021, Crawley has played in just eight ODIs, averaging 28.42, amassing 199 runs. He has not yet been included in the T20 squad.

Following a terrible summer in 2022 with the Test team, in which he scored seven single-digit scores and only managed one fifty in 13 innings, Crawley has been one of England's best players ever since, evoking requests for his inclusion in the white-ball arena. "I've always wanted to be a good white-ball player. I'm trying to add a few other shots to my game, but I feel like it's quite suited and I've gone well in T20 cricket in the past when I've had a run at it," Crawley told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

"In the last few years, things weren't particularly going so well so I wanted to concentrate on the red ball and stay in that team - it was always my priority for me to play Test cricket. That will always be my number one format - it means the most to me - but playing any format for England is a huge honour and playing white-ball cricket is something I really want to do," he added. "I'm trying to add a bit more power to my game, I'm working hard in the nets trying a few different things to hopefully hit more and bigger sixes," Crawley said. (ANI)

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