McCullum backs Crawley; calls on England to show greater 'conviction'

Brendon McCullum still believes in Zak Crawley despite his pair in the first Test against Australia, and has called on England bat with more conviction following their two-day defeat in Perth. The visiting head coach even cited Travis Head's match-winning 123 as an example to follow.

Head made light work of what looked a more-than-competitive target of 205, driving Australia most of the way home to an eight-wicket win in just 28.2 overs. With Usman Khawaja yet again suffering from a back injury, Head replaced Marnus Labuschagne (who opened in the first innings) and proceeded to slap 20 boundaries, including four sixes that belied the size of the Optus Stadium boundaries.

As well as flaying an England attack that 24 hours earlier had put the frighteners up the home batters, Head was responsible for the first runs for an opening partnership in the Test. The first overs of the previous three innings had brought ducks. Crawley was responsible for two at the hands of Mitchell Starc. Jake Weatherald - knocked off his feet by Jofra Archer on day one - maintained his footing with 23, his first runs in Test cricket.

A careless waft outside off stump six balls into the match was followed by a checked-push five balls into his second innings, brilliantly caught by Starc. With that, Crawley became the first English opener dismissed without scoring in both innings of an Ashes Test since Michael Atherton at Melbourne in 1998.

Pegged as a batter to thrive on Australian pitches, England have groomed Crawley as an X-factor player ahead of this tour. He has been backed to the hilt by captain Ben Stokes since the start of his tenure.

Though Crawley was the leading run-scorer in 2023's Ashes, and England's standout run-scorer on the following tour of India, he has averaged just 32.26 since the start of 2022. His career average - 30.96 - is close to dipping under the thirty mark.

McCullum has previously insisted Crawley is not picked to be "a consistent player". Essentially, he is a scorer of great runs rather than a great run-scorer. That point of view remains undimmed, as is his importance in an opening partnership with Ben Duckett that remains the fastest since 1998.

"We believe he is a quality player," McCullum said, when asked if Crawley was undroppable. "Particularly in these conditions against this sort of opposition. How many balls did he face? 10 or 11? He got out cheaply, but we believe in Zak.

"He's been around this group for a long time, he's done really well. The combination with Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley has allowed us to enter games as best as we think we can. And I'd expect to see a strong bounce-back from Zak in the next little while. Sometimes you get out early, right? It would have been nice if he hadn't. But that's life. If he can get going, he can do some damage."

"If" being the operative word. Crawley is now joint-fourth on England's duck list from 96 innings - the only member of that top five to have batted fewer than 142 times in Test cricket. And the suggestion he cracks on when he gets a start is not backed up by the statistics. The 27-year-old has 24 fifty-plus scores, but of openers with at least 20, his average of 85.80 is the third lowest.

Of course, Crawley is not the sole batter to blame for the fact England are 1-0 down. It was a top-order collapse of 5 for 23 - including Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and Joe Root across six deliveries for no run - that relinquished what had been a lead of 105 with nine second-innings wickets in hand.

It was Scott Boland who thrived during this passage, eventually finishing with 4 for 33, making amends for a difficult 0 for 62 in the first innings.

Having bested the 36-year-old on Friday, England were unable to get a hold of him on Saturday. A mistake, in McCullum's eyes, which he puts down to batters not wholly committed to their respective methods. Unlike Head.

"Maybe just back away and slay it over point, or slog it to cow?!" McCullum said, tongue in cheek, when asked how England might have batted better. "I'm not saying they didn't go hard enough, but there was a player [Head] who had total conviction in his method and has done it across different formats and on different stages over the last few years.

"'Have conviction' - that's been what we've said. Choose a method and have conviction in it. If it works then great. But if it doesn't at least you've done it your way."

Despite the early finish, England are set to remain in Perth for the time being before heading straight to Queensland ahead of the second Test, a day-night affair in Brisbane, which begins on December 4.

A decision is yet to be made on whether any of the main squad will drop into the England XI - originally the Lions - for the Prime Minister's XI match in Canberra (November 29), which will offers them pink-ball practice. Most importantly for McCullum is shedding the pain of this whirlwind defeat as quickly as possible.

"We will let the dust settle, but we are bitterly disappointed for us, but also all the fans who have turned up here to support us so well here and we know we will be throughout the series.

"We can't carry this one onto the next. We've been trying to insulate against things going wrong for a while. For us that connectivity and camaraderie is something we pride ourselves on. We will need it over the next few days."