India’s captain Shubman Gill waves to the fans after their win against England on day five of the second cricket test match at Edgbaston in Birmingham, England, Sunday, July 6, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has lambasted opener Zak Crawley for his inconsistent performances in the ongoing Test series against India, calling him the “luckiest player” to have won so many Test caps despite repeated failures at the highest level.
The 2005 Ashes winning skipper also suggested that Crawley take a leaf out of Indian skipper Shubman Gill’s batting play-book and do some course correction. Crawley’s only knock of relevance in the ongoing series has been a 65-run effort in the opening Test.
“There have been many players who have frustrated fans – including me – over the years, but he (Crawley) is right up there as the most frustrating I can remember. And in my time watching, playing for and covering England, he is the player luckiest to have won as many caps as he has,” Vaughan wrote in his column for ‘The Telegraph’.
“He has to count himself fortunate to have played 56 games, whilst scoring just five hundreds, and averaging 31. Among all the openers in history with more than 2,500 runs, he has the lowest average: 30.3.
“He’s batted 102 times in Test cricket, and been out in single digits 42 times,” the cricketer-turned-commentator didn’t mince words while highlighting every statistical detail of the right-handed opener’s career.
He then cited Gill’s example and how he made technical adjustments to have nearly scored 600 runs in the first two Tests of the ongoing series.
“It is possible to change. Look at Shubman Gill. He came into this series averaging 35, and four innings later he averages 42. He has done that because of his mindset and strategy. He recognised that he was vulnerable to the lbw, and that his hands were away from his body.
“But he has been tighter, and that has allowed him to bat for long periods with greater control, while still putting the bad ball away. He has focused on defence, then attacked later,” he further wrote.
Published – July 07, 2025 12:05 pm IST
