by Zak Crawley says he is fully fit and “back with a new hunger” after missing the second half of England’s summer Test with a broken finger.
However, the extent to which Ben Stokes has recovered from the torn hamstring that forced him to miss the series against Sri Lanka is less certain, with the captain only featuring briefly in the opening session. team training in Pakistan.
Crawley said Stokes “seems to be doing well, recovering well” but that “we don’t know yet” whether he will be able to play the opening match of the series, which begins in Multan on Monday. “I think he needs to do some more tests,” the fly-half said. The last official update on his injury came 10 days ago, when a carefully worded statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board said he was “on track to participate in the upcoming Test series against Pakistan.”
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After watching the first hour of practice from England’s balcony, Stokes appeared to send perhaps a dozen deliveries on a two-pace run into an empty net, to perform a few running drills and to pass about half an hour at bat. At this stage he seems unlikely to play, and with a squad set to be named on Saturday he has less than 24 hours to prove he is fit to play, with Ollie Pope available if needed to take over the role of alternate captain he played. played against Sri Lanka.
Although Crawley was unable to bat until mid-September, England were confident enough in his ability to return to the top of the order to leave Dan Lawrence, who replaced him against Sri Lanka, out of the team for Pakistan. “It’s as good as it could be at this stage,” Crawley said of his injury, a broken pinky finger on his right hand sustained during a match against the West Indies in July.
As a precaution, he will not return to the drag cord at this time, but he did participate in a one-on-one make-up workout with Brendon McCullum on Friday.
“It was a bad break at that point, but I recovered well and I don’t feel it at all while I’m hitting,” he said. “On the pitch, I didn’t do much. I’m trying to put him down.
Crawley spent much of his time away from the game following it on television and returned from his time on the sidelines with rekindled motivation. “It shows how much it means to me, how much I love playing for England,” he said. “I came back with a new hunger. I feel like I have a lot of energy. No one wants to take time out and I wouldn’t choose to do it again, but I certainly got some positives out of it.
That energy is likely to be severely tested, with Multan on Friday presenting an extraordinary contrast to the soggy and freezing conditions in which England’s home summer ended in Bristol five days earlier: the only showers here came when batters poured sweat from their helmets on the way out. nets.
“It’s hot, but it’s a lot harder in practice than in games,” Crawley said. “You face a ball every 15 seconds, that’s the main reason we sweat so much. In a game where it’s every 45 seconds, it’s much easier to control. We’ve all played in heat like this before, so it’s not a problem.
The advantage is, as Crawley said, “the reverse swing should be easy with the sweat.”
The 26-year-old also saw the silver lining in the decision to stage the first two matches in Multan, a result of the delay in reconstruction work at the Karachi stadium where the second was originally scheduled. “It’s great because we’re staying in a really good hotel,” he said. “Pool tables, billiards, golf courses, such nice and welcoming people. The boys are very happy.
