Zak Crawley: 'King of Bazball' on the Ashes, Ronnie O'Sullivan and England's tour of India

Zak Crawley was dubbed the 'King of Bazball' by The West Australian newspaper

Zak Crawley left such an impression on the Australians that when he arrived to play for Perth Scorchers, the local newspaper carried a back-page mock-up of him in robes and a crown, sitting on a throne.

"The King of Bazball," screamed the headline of The West Australian.

The elevation to royal status, at least in the eyes of the Aussies, is recognition of a coming-of-age summer for the 25-year-old, one that started with debate over his place and ended with the most runs by an England opener in a home Ashes for 30 years.

Crawley was well aware of the scrutiny, even if he keeps off social media. With a fit-again Jonny Bairstow returning, one theory to accommodate Harry Brook and wicketkeeper Ben Foakes was to omit Crawley and rejig the batting order.

England kept faith with Crawley, as they have throughout the Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum era - he is one of only three men to play in every Test under the leadership duo. He repaid them not only with runs, but the "moments" the New Zealander tells England to chase.

The four crunched off Pat Cummins at a febrile Edgbaston will go down as one of the most memorable first deliveries of an Ashes series held in this country. Crawley's 189 at Old Trafford, an unstoppable butchery of baggy green, was one of the great Ashes knocks anywhere, ever.

"I knew full well that debate was going on," Crawley tells BBC Sport. "Luckily I don't see little comments on social media. That helps. I just followed what the coach and captain were saying. They gave me full backing."

Until the past summer, questions had hung over Crawley's entire Test career. First called up as 21-year-old in 2019 with only three first-class hundreds to his name, the ability to play shots attractive enough to make a statue blush was never in doubt. It was what came in between that was the problem.

The lowest point, at least statistically, came in 2022, after defeat by South Africa at Lord's. Crawley's average had fallen to 26.06, the worst since the beginning of his Test career. In his own words, Crawley was "feeling the pressure from outside".

At that moment, McCullum delivered his unequivocal backing.

"The last two guys who nailed it at the top of the order are both called 'Sir' in this country," McCullum told reporters.

"Zak's skillset is not to be a consistent cricketer. He's not that type of player. He's put in that situation because he has a game which, when he gets going, he can win matches for England."

In the next Test, Crawley made a vital 38 in devilish conditions against a strong South African attack that laid the platform for an innings win. In the next, his first half-century for nine matches and in the next, the series opener in Pakistan, an 86-ball hundred that set the tone for England racking up 506-4 in a single day.

A quiet tour of New Zealand followed, bringing about the Bairstow speculation, but the Yorkshireman ultimately replaced Foakes, and Crawley kicked on by averaging 54.80 across the summer of 2023.

"I've struggled a lot in my career with wanting the result too much," Crawley explains.

"Sometimes you have to let go and trust the process. Whenever I've tried too hard or wanted it too much, that's when I feel more mistakes come.

"It's certainly something I still battle with. I've had it before where I've had a lot of failure and I can say, 'Listen, I'm just going to let go' and that's usually when I come good.

"That's a big thing I'm working on now, to see how much I can get in that mindset of just going out and playing, rather than thinking I need to make a score right now."

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Crawley has often spoken of his admiration for Ronnie O'Sullivan, leaving an unlikely combination of influences - the seven-time world snooker champion and former New Zealand captain McCullum.

"I love the way Ronnie plays and talks about sport," says Crawley. "To him, the way he plays is more important than the result. That's such a powerful mindset. It's a hard one to get into, but whenever you get into that mindset, you find yourself playing better.

"Baz is big on that. He talks about it all time, that the way we play is more important in the long run, and that will bring results.

"Baz always seem to find the right moment to speak. He certainly has an aura about him. He's never negative. He's an optimist. That's what we need sometimes in English sport. As a nation we're quite pessimistic at times."

In cementing his own place, Crawley has also formed a partnership with Ben Duckett to end a decade-long wait for a dependable duo at the top of the order. No combination of England openers have more runs as a pair since Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook were separated by Strauss' retirement in 2012. The rate at which Crawley and Duckett score - 5.41 runs per over - is ludicrous.

"Ducky is the leader of that partnership," says Crawley. "I bounce off him a lot.

"He's such a good player, so hard to bowl to when he's in full flow. It takes pressure off me. He scores effortlessly quickly."

Crawley is speaking at the end of his stint in Perth, a city that has played a large role in shaping his career. Before his England days, he would make trips to Western Australia to hit with batting coach Neil 'Noddy' Holder, on the advice of former Kent team-mate and now England boss Rob Key.

Holder arranged Crawley's stint in grade cricket with Perth club Wembley Districts, where they rated the then 18-year-old as an excellent golfer but a terrible poker player.

Wherever Crawley has travelled, he has been a voracious practiser. The reason he bought a flat overlooking Kent's Canterbury home was to be nearer the nets, inspired by a story he read about the great Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff in a football magazine when he was around nine years old. His own love of football centres on Charlton Athletic, but he is too young to remember Clive Mendonca's Wembley hat-trick in the 1998 play-off final.

From Perth, he went straight to Abu Dhabi to link up with England for the five Tests in India, beginning in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Crawley is a survivor of the last tour in 2021, a torturous 3-1 defeat set against the backdrop of Covid restrictions, a world away from on and off-field freedom preached by McCullum and Stokes.

"It would have been tricky even for them, because the stuff we like to do now we wouldn't have been able to do," says Crawley.

"I'm not sure enough was made of that at the time, how tricky that was, especially for Joe Root as the captain and the coaches."

Now liberated in every sense, Crawley will be at the forefront of the most fascinating Bazball expedition to date. The world's most exciting cricket team in the world's most fanatical cricketing nation.

"We're not going to change our approach," says Crawley.

"It has to be judged at the time. We talk about being fully present. If you're not present, you build up all these ideas about what it's going to be like, what the pitches will be, but we could turn up and the first Test is on a belter of a pitch.

"We could turn up and it's an absolutely raging turner, so you have to adapt your gameplan and play the situation. You can't decide that until you're out there and you're reading the situation.

"This time will be a lot better."

All hail the King of Bazball.

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