Rejuvenated Crawley relieved to be back in the runs

The opener reaches his first Test century in almost two years

International Test Match Series - England v Zimbabwe - Trent Bridge, Nottingham, Britain - May 22, 2025 England's Zak Crawley celebrates reaching his century Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs

England scored the sixth highest number of runs in a single day of Test cricket when they amassed 498 for three against a tame Zimbabwe attack at Trent Bridge on Thursday, providing scoring opportunities for two batters who needed a shot of confidence.

England fell 90 runs short of the all-time record they hold having scored 588 runs on day two against India at Old Trafford in 1936. But it is their most runs on the opening day of a test.

Opener Zak Crawley reached his first Test century in almost two years with 124, before Ollie Pope, who has also been in the spotlight for his form, produced an unbeaten 169 from 163 balls.

Crawley admits he has not been oblivious to the calls for him to be dropped having averaged 29.25 with a top score of 79 in his previous 15 Tests.

"You know you are under pressure and need to score runs," Crawley told Sky Sports. "But the thing for me is that I just want to play well. It (calls to be dropped) bothers you a little bit, but the most annoying thing is not playing well.

"I just try to find some rhythm because I love batting. I have felt in decent touch for a few months now."

An alteration in his stance to be more upright at the crease is one of the changes Crawley has made to his game to revive his international career with series against India and Australia coming later in the year.

"Set-up is a huge one for me, I have been trying to stand a bit taller and it has been a lot better in the last couple of weeks," he said.

"Having my head come forward and keeping my hands nice and high in the backlift."

It was not his most fluent century on a good batting wicket, taking 171 balls for his 124 on a day when England scored at 5.66 runs per over.

"I just tried to get singles. It wasn’t my quickest test century, but I just tried to get down the other end and watch those guys (Ben Duckett and Pope) hit a few fours.

"I found a lot of gaps with my ones and I was trying not to overhit the ball. Like I said, my set-up is pretty good at the moment and I pounced on the bad balls."