England’s wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler is convinced that young batsman Zak Crawley’s double century against Pakistan will be the curtain-raiser “to a very special career”.
The duo shared a record stand for the fifth-wicket in Test cricket for England during the third match in Southampton on Saturday.
Crawley converted an overnight 171 not out, his maiden Test century, into an innings of 267.
The 359-run stand helped the Three Lions post a mammoth 583-8 in their first innings on the second day at the Ageas Bowl.
Buttler, while talking to the media after the match, heaped praise on Crawley and believes the youngster will have ‘a very special career’ in international cricket.
“It’s a pleasure to watch him from the other end,” said Buttler. “He hits the ball incredibly hard, has shots all around the wicket and he’s a great kid to bat with. It’s the start of a very special career. He’s going to score a few more hundreds for England, no doubt. This will give him a huge amount of confidence, but an innings of that magnitude will give him so much more belief. He’s got a level head too and he won’t get ahead of himself.”
Buttler, who went on to register his career-best 152 during the same innings, also revealed that his ‘belief’ helped him turned his fortune around in the five-day format.
“A couple of games ago I was thinking I was about to get dropped so it just proves that you’re never far away,” he said. “You’ve got to maintain that belief in yourself. I’ve certainly questioned myself in the last few weeks, but I’ve found a good head space to hang in there. I worked on a few things during the period of lockdown and it was good to reflect on my batting and some things I needed to improve.”
England finished day two in commanding position after dismissing Pakistan’s three top order batsmen for just 24 runs at stumps.
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