Zak Crawley declared that he is fully fit and “back with a new hunger” after missing the second half of England’s Test summer 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 participating only briefly in the team’s first training session in Pakistan.
Crawley said Stokes “seems to be going well, recovering well” but that “we don’t know just yet” if he will be able to play in the opening game of the series, which starts in Multan on Monday. “I think he’s got to do a few more tests,” the opener said. The last official update on his injury came 10 days ago, when an carefully worded England and Wales Cricket Board statement said he was “on track to participate in the upcoming Test series against Pakistan”.
After watching the first hour of training from England’s balcony, Stokes emerged to send down perhaps a dozen deliveries off a two-pace run-up in an empty net, to perform some running drills, and to spend about half an hour batting. At this stage he seems unlikely to bowl, and with a team set to be named on Saturday he has less than 24 hours to prove he is fit to play, with Ollie Pope available if necessary to reprise the role of stand-in captain that he performed against Sri Lanka.
Though Crawley was unable to pick up a bat until mid-September, England were confident enough of his ability to return at the top of the order to leave Dan Lawrence, who replaced him against Sri Lanka, out of the squad for Pakistan. “It’s as good as it could be at this stage,” Crawley said of his injury, a fractured little finger on his right hand sustained while fielding against West Indies in July.
As a precaution he will not return to the slip cordon for the time being, but he came through some one-on-one catching practice with Brendon McCullum on Friday.
“It was a nasty break at the time, but I’ve recovered well and I don’t feel it at all while I’m batting,” he said. “In the field I haven’t done too much. I’m trying to rest it.”
Crawley spent much of his time away from the game following it on television, and has returned from his spell on the sidelines with motivation refuelled. “It shows how much this means to me, how much I love playing for England,” he said. “I’ve come back with a new hunger. I feel like I’ve got a lot of energy. No one wants any time out and I wouldn’t choose to do it again, but I’ve taken some positives from it for sure.”
That energy is likely to be tested severely, with Multan on Friday presenting an extraordinary contrast to the sodden and frigid conditions in which England’s home summer ended in Bristol five days earlier: the only downpours here came when batters poured sweat from their helmets as they emerged from the nets.
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“It’s hot but it’s much tougher in training than it is in games,” Crawley said. “You’re facing a ball every 15 seconds, which is the main reason we’re sweating so much. In a game where it’s every 45 seconds it’s a lot easier to control. We’ve all played in heat like this before, so it’s not a concern.”
The upside is, as Crawley said, “reverse swing should be easy with the sweat”.
The 26-year-old was also looking on the bright side of the decision to hold the first two games in Multan, the result of delayed reconstruction work on the stadium in Karachi where the second was scheduled originally. “It’s great because we’re staying in a really good hotel,” he said. “Snooker tables, pool, golf courses, people so nice and welcoming. The boys are very happy.”