Crawley does need time to develop away but Dobell is wrong about Compton
George Dobell in The Cricketer is right that Crawley is more ruined my Bazball than helped but Compton isn't the answer
In this article by George Dobell in The Cricketer he is right to assertain that Crawley is hurt by Bazball more than he is helped but I feel like he should be moved into a more Middle-Order role while he learns a more compact defensive technique.
Kent have a difficult choice as they would probably prefer to open with Ben Compton and Daniel Bell-Drummond with DBD averaging 43.95 last season including a High Score of 149. In my own preview of Kent for the upcoming season I had Bell-Drummond at 3 but after some more consideration I feel like they could Line-Up with Ben Compton and DBD opening, Joe Denly at 3, and then a 4,5 and 6 of Leaning, Billings and Crawley in any order with Jordan Cox at 7. That is a very long order with some powerful quick scorers in the Middle to speed up again after Compton’s watchful start. Although with that having a team balance of 3 frontline seamers, 1 spinner in George Linde and no all-rounders they might want to drop a middle order player for that all-rounder. Now Leaning averaged 41.94, Billings only 23.83, Crawley only 27.47 and Jordan Cox 45.85 so they would either have Crawley or Billings to drop and they would probably say Crawley as Billings has shown more for Kent in previous seasons and getting him settled in the side would be more beneficial if he is going to be available more.
England’s Options
Now looking at England who can they select to open. The original piece focussed on Compton but his run-scoring fell off towards the end of the season which coincided with the better batch of Dukes balls arrived. So who had a better season?
The first name that should be there is Keaton Jennings who scored a mammoth 1233 runs at 72.52 last year. All while opening and a memorable triple hundred at Southport.
Jennings had a go at Test Match cricket from 2016-2018 with a solitary game in 2019 and averaged only 25 but his career First-Class average of 36.65 suggests that he has a higher ceiling in the format and being only 30 he is a choice for not just now but maybe the next 4 years.
Johnny Bairstow is another option. I don’t believe he has ever opened in First-Class Cricket but he does average of 43.62 and was blitzing it last year. The way the rest of the team falls it’s either opening or giving him the gloves replacing Foakes in the Test Side and surely they want him in. With the decision for him to play Championship Cricket to start the season it would be a perfect testbed to have him open for Yorkshire to see how he does even if its just for 3 games before he can move back down to number 6 in the Yorkshire order.
Adam Lyth has been playing the swashbuckling attacking cricket his entire life and with a First-Class average of 35.18 he appears to be able to do it but his previous Test Matches came 7 years ago and he only averaged 20.38 so he might not be able to do it at the highest level. Last Year he averaged 32.91 so he might be in the conversation again with the vibes he has.
As a completely Left Field option you could go for Luke Wells with the Lancashire opener having a First-Class average of 36.65 and an average last year of 52.15 he has the technique and grit. He also bowls handy off-breaks should England want someone else to throw the ball to.
Moving down to looking at Division 2 (and we should remember that Ben Duckett played Div 2 last year) there is Alex Lees present again. Scoring at an average of 58.18 is no mean feat especially when you are under pressure in Test Matches. He had an excellent Winter with the England Lions as well but having averaged only 23 at Test level and most of that being under this management probably rules him out of contention.
I would go for Keaton Jennings based on it’s been a while since his last Test Match and he has a sheer weight of Runs at a high average and has scored on the hardest ground to bat on in Aigburth.