The England opener Zak Crawley is out from the 2024 edition of The Hundred Men’s Competition after he sustained a finger injury during the third Test against West Indies at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
Crawley suffered the injury while fielding at slips during the visitors’ second innings. Crawley was rushed to the hospital for an X-ray which revealed a fracture. However, reports from The Telegraph indicate that this week is when the medical team will confirm if he needs surgery. The full extent of the injury has not yet been established.
During his absence, captain Ben Stokes started with Ben Duckett. The pair chased down the 87-run target with ease in only 7.2 overs, as England took home a resounding 10-wicket victory and sealed a clean sweep of the series at 3-0.
Injury makes Crawley miss out on the 2024 version of The Hundred for the London Spirit. The franchise has already replaced him with Keaton Jennings. Besides this injury replacement for Crawley, the left-handed opening batter is also a serious candidate to replace him at the top of the order for the upcoming Sri Lanka series.
Similarly, England is looking towards promoting Dan Lawrence to the top. This right-handed batter has mainly been regarded as a second choice during the Bazball era.
An instance in point is when he was kept on standby for the second Test at Trent Bridge when Duckett was anticipating his baby’s birth. On the other hand, Zak Crawley will not be playing for the London Spirit, who have already lost their first two matches and currently sit at rock bottom in the table listing.
Zak Crawley accumulated 97 runs in the three-match series versus the West Indies
In the first Test match against the West Indies at Lord’s, the opening batsman had a fantastic beginning to his home season as he scored 76 runs off 89 balls in the first innings. He did not get an opportunity to bat again since England won by an innings and 114 runs.
Trent Bridge saw Zak Crawley fail to get off the mark in his first innings before he was run out for just three runs in his second. The third Test saw him get off to a bright start but he was then dismissed for 18 runs from 13 balls and did not bat again because of injury.
Crawley concluded the series with a total of 97 runs scored over four matches, with an average of 24.25; all these were part of the whitewash that England achieved. Starting from August 21, England will be playing a three-test home series against Sri Lanka.
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