Ashes 2023: He has tightened up his technique – Nasser Hussain impressed with Zak Crawley’s knock

Former England skipper Nasser Hussain is impressed with the way Zak Crawley is batting in the ongoing Ashes against Australia. The lanky right-hander scored a run-a-ball 48 in the first innings of the ongoing second Test match at Lord’s on Thursday.

Hussain reckons Crawley has worked on his batting technique and he is reaping rewards for the same. Crawley scored five fours in his attacking knock and added a fine alliance of 91 runs with his opening partner Ben Duckett, who went on to score 98 runs.

Former England captain Hussain reckons Zak Crawley earlier had a wide batting stance, which was leading to his downfall.

Nasser Hussain wrote in his column for Daily Mail, “What has looked extremely promising for him so far this summer is that he has tightened up his technique and on Thursday he was lining the ball up nicely once more. Previously, he had a very wide batting stance, and in New Zealand earlier this year, he was playing quite a bit out in front of himself.”

“When his weight was back, he pushed his hands out in front of his body with a braced front leg whereas now he can play the ball later right underneath him, and bend that front knee into the drives,” Hussain added.

The former England right-hander highlighted Crawley has shown the potential to make daddy hundreds and he will look to be consistent at the top of the order.

“England coach Brendon McCullum has said that Crawley’s game is suited to being inconsistent – as we saw in the last game in Birmingham. He looked a million dollars. Then, when the floodlights came on, he nicked off,” Nasser Hussain said.

“Crawley has shown himself to be a player who can make big hundreds, and double hundreds, but his challenge now is to achieve greater consistency, building on that tightening up of his technique by working on the mental side of shot selection,” he added.

In fact, Crawley kicked off Ashes 2023 in style as he smashed Pat Cummins to the boundary on the first ball of the series. The right-hander from Kent had scored 61 runs from 73 balls in the first innings of the opening Test at Edgbaston.

Meanwhile, England finished the second day’s play at 278-4 and they trail Australia’s score of 416 by 138 runs.