England selection decision proves spot on with Ashes battle on a knife-edge

It is safe to say there will be no more whispers about Zak Crawley and his approach to Test cricket after this. With an innings of astonishing brutality, England’s opener not only answered critics but put his side in pole position in this pivotal fourth Ashes Test and left Australia looking broken and scattered into the bargain.

At 5.12pm, Crawley left the field 11 short of what would have been a second double century of his Test career, victim to a tired shot to Cameron Green which dragged on to his stumps.

By then his 189 in 182 balls and his part in two turbo-charged partnerships with Moeen Ali then Joe Root had seen England race past Australia’s first innings total of 317 in the 55th over of their reply.

Thrillingly for a crowd who witnessed an astonishing 178 in 25 overs between lunch and tea, Crawley took them into a first innings lead with a huge six.

fEngland closed the day on 384-4 with a lead of 67, Ben Stokes and Harry Brook set to return this morning. And while they will have one eye on a weather forecast predicting rain at the weekend, they will want at least a 150 lead.

If one by one these England batters are standing up to vindicate not only their selection but approach to Test cricket, today was Crawley’s turn.

At Lord’s Ben Duckett had stepped up, in Leeds Harry Brook had silenced those who had doubted. Here Old Trafford saw first Moeen Ali prove himself as a stand-in No 3 with a half century in a 121-run partnership before Crawley set about hauling England into a lead.

His was an innings which distilled the essence of Bazball – brutal, relentlessly aggressive and stretching the limits of risk and reward to the max. There were inside edges which flashed past his stumps on more than one occasion on 12, 42, 62 and 83.

But there were strokes which also took the breath away too with reach and skill making some risky shots look like Kevin Pietersen had been redrafted.

He reached his 50 with a four off Travis Head before launching a six next ball, there were two sumptuous straight drives off Pat Cummins to make it to 150 and effortless swings off Mitch Marsh late in the day as England started to pile runs into a first innings lead.

If Moeen had helped soften up Australia, Root helped scrambled their minds with a 206-run stand for the next which put them in the box seat. It has been easy to see why England’s hierarchy have never entertained the notion of dropping Crawley despite an average of 30 that has been underwhelming.

His ability in establishing platforms has shone if not his ability to take advantage. Today he did both.

Australia would have feared such a scenario when gambling on picking no front line spinner. Travis Head was no substitute for Nathan Lyon – his 0-48 in six overs – leaving Australia skipper Pat Cummins with no option but to flog his seamers almost as hard as Crawley did.

Jimmy Anderson had started England’s day in perfect fashion finally getting amongst the wickets much to the delight of his local crowd having Pat Cummins caught by Ben Stokes at cover point with the first hall of the day.

And but for a no ball, Chris Woakes would have cut Australia’s innings short at 300 and for a cost of just one run when Crawley grabbed a chance at second slip.

As it was that overstep cost England another 17 runs, Woakes making amends and re-completing a fifth five wicket haul with 5-62.