Name: Zak Crawley
Zak Crawley is an English professional cricketer who plays for Kent County Cricket Club and the England cricket team. He has also captained England in One Day Internationals.
Crawley has been associated with Kent from a young age, representing the county for under-11. He is a graduate of the Kent Cricket Academy and has played club cricket for Holmesdale Cricket Club, Knockholt Cricket Club, and Sevenoaks Vine. He made his Second XI debut for Kent in 2013 at 15 and signed his first professional contract with the club at the end of the 2015 season. During the 2016–17 English winter, Crawley played Western Australian Grade Cricket for Wembley Districts.
Crawley made his senior debut for Kent in the 2017 Royal London Cup against Essex on 17 May 2017. He made his first-class debut for Kent against the touring West Indians on 6 August 2017, scoring 62 runs in his debut first-class innings. He made his County Championship debut for Kent later that month and signed a contract extension with the club in October 2017.
In early 2018, Crawley was part of the Kent squad for the 2017–18 Regional Super50 competition in the West Indies. He scored his maiden List A half-century in Kent's opening match against Guyana and went on to score 99 not out against the Leeward Islands. During the 2018 season, Crawley became a regular in the Kent side, playing in all of the team's first-class matches. He was Kent's third-highest run-scorer in the County Championship with 755 runs at an average of 31.46. He scored his maiden first-class century in the final home match of the season, making 168 against Glamorgan.
Crawley has also played overseas, including for Sydney Cricket Club in New South Wales Grade cricket, where he set a new record for the fastest century in the competition, making 100 from 42 balls in the T20 Cup against Sutherland District Cricket Club. He was drafted by London Spirit for the inaugural season of The Hundred and played for Hobart Hurricanes in the 2022–23 Big Bash League, scoring a half-century on debut.
Crawley made his international debut for England in November 2019 in the second Test match of England's tour of New Zealand. Despite averaging less than 35 runs per inning in county cricket in 2018 and 2019, Crawley was seen as a potential international batsman. He made his England Lions debut in July 2019 against an Australian XI at Canterbury and scored 820 County Championship runs during the season.
Crawley was named in the England Test squad for the 2019–20 tour of New Zealand and debuted at Seddon Park on 29 November 2019. He was retained in the team for the South Africa tour in December 2019 and January 2020, making his second Test appearance in the second Test against South Africa and scoring his first Test half-century in the final match of the series.
In March 2020, Crawley signed a three-year contract extension with Kent. He was named in a group of 55 players to begin training ahead of international fixtures during the COVID-19 pandemic and was included in England's 30-man squad for the Test series against the West Indies. He played in the first two Tests of the summer, scoring 76 in the second innings of the first Test. Crawley made his maiden Test century in August 2020 against Pakistan, scoring 267 runs and setting a new England fifth-wicket record partnership of 359 runs with Jos Buttler. His performances in 2020 led to him being named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in the 2021 edition of the Almanack.
Crawley was selected for the England tours of Sri Lanka and India in the winter of 2020–21. He sprained his wrist and missed the first two matches of the Indian series but returned for the third Test, top-scoring with 53 runs in England's first innings. During the home series against New Zealand, Crawley struggled with the bat, with his best innings scoring 17 runs.
Following a COVID-19 outbreak, Crawley was named in the revised England squad for the ODI series against Pakistan in July 2021 and made his ODI debut, scoring an unbeaten half-century. However, his Test form remained poor in 2021, with 11 single-figure scores and a Test batting average for the year of 10.81. Crawley lost his place in the team during the summer but was retained in the squad for the 2021–22 Ashes series in Australia. He was recalled for the Boxing Day Test and scored 77 runs in the fourth Test, retaining his place for the remainder of the series.
Crawley scored his second Test century during the first match of the West Indies tour in early 2022. Despite his century, his performances in the remaining matches led to criticism of his shot selection. Crawley was selected for the Test squad for England's tour of Pakistan in late 2022. He opened the batting in the first match of the series, scoring 122 runs and setting a record for the fastest century by an England Test opener.