England great Geoffrey Boycott has delivered strong criticism of opener Zak Crawley and all-rounder Chris Woakes. Boycott believes Crawley is unlikely to improve and feels that Woakes has passed his peak.
“I don’t think he can change or get better. Batting is in the head and the brain dictates how you approach batting: what shots you attempt, what balls you leave. His faults in technique and thinking are ingrained,” Boycott wrote in The Daily Telegraph.
Boycott expressed disappointment that, despite having played 56 Test matches, Crawley has not shown meaningful development. According to him, Crawley is experiencing frequent failures during a phase that should be the peak of his career.
“A leopard doesn’t change his spots, or maybe Zak does not want to change. He should be approaching his best years but in 56 Tests he has learned nothing. One sparkling innings and numerous failures, with an average of 31, is not good enough.”
Boycott also criticised Crawley’s dismissals in both innings at Edgbaston, suggesting the opener failed to show proper judgment and awareness.
“The two shots he got out to at Edgbaston [in the second Test] were awful. In the first innings his feet got stuck in cement, neither forward nor back, and then he wafted at the ball to be caught at slip. Second innings he batted on off stump and drove at a well-pitched up ball two feet wide. He did not need to play it. He was on nought, had been fielding for five sessions, and his legs were tired so should have been thinking about surviving that evening,” he further wrote.
As for Woakes, Boycott feels the 36-year-old seamer is past his prime, with declining pace and limited overseas impact.
“It is counter-productive to keep the same guys in the team when they are past their sell-by date or not doing enough. Look at Chris Woakes. His pace is dropping as you would expect as a seamer gets older. He has never been a wicket-taker abroad, where his record is poor. He is good – or has been good – on English pitches, and his batting has been handy at times as a safety valve when others have failed. His job should not be to shore up bad batting. Batsmen are there to score runs and bowlers need to take wickets,” he concluded.
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