Zak Crawley confident there is still room for him to stake claim at top of the England order

The Kent batsman believes the camp at the Ageas Bowl could act as his audition.
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Zak Crawley believes England have not decided on their starting XI to face West Indies and that he can stake his claim at the top of the order in the next two weeks.

Crawley, having made his debut down at six against New Zealand in November, was brought in as an opener for the Second Test of the subsequent series against South Africa following injury to Rory Burns.

The 22-year-old impressed during the series win but, with Burns fit and Dom Sibley having firmly established himself as an international opener, Crawley is arguably the third choice to open for England.

The Kent batsman believes the camp at the Ageas Bowl for the 30-strong training group will act as a glorified audition for him.

He said of top-order selection: “No, I don’t feel the decision has been made. The following couple of weeks in the nets and the warm-up game [which begins next Wednesday] are a good chance for me to stake my claim.”

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Crawley laid a claim for a place after a run in which he bettered his previous Test score every time he played following his England debut, reaching a current international best of 66 after five innings. And a century-stand shared with Sibley against South Africa was England’s first for a pair of openers for three years.

With Burns and Sibley the front-runners to bat first in the three Tests against West Indies, Crawley could instead be selected further down the order when the first series of the summer gets under way on July 8.

Should he miss out on a spot entirely, Crawley said he would be doing his best to get back into contention.

“If they all score good runs it would be hard for me to break into the side,” he admitted. “But there are six games to play so I won’t give up hope if I’m not picked for the first. I’ll work as hard as I can to get into that side.”

Meanwhile, Surrey and Middlesex will play a behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly at the Oval over the course of two days from Sunday July 26.

The aim is for the red-ball match to act as a warm-up before a hoped-for return to competitive action the following weekend. The match will be live on Surrey’s Facebook page.

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