The Ashes: Defiant Zak Crawley looking to shine after a torrid 2021 at the crease

Crawley was heralded as the poster boy for a new generation of batting prospects when he scored a magnificent 267 against Pakistan 16 months ago, but his returns have been in tailspin ever since.

He was dismissed cheaply twice on his comeback appearance in Melbourne, a Boxing Day rout that saw Australia retain the Ashes after just 12 days of cricket, lowering his career mark to 26.92 and his annual one to a gruesome 10.81.

The latter is a number that a tailender would be looking to work on, but England have confidence that the 23-year-old can still become a serious top-order player at international level.

It is a belief the Kent batter clearly shares and he gave no indication that his self-belief has been shaken as he talked up his prospects of a change in fortunes in the fourth Test at the SCG this week.

“Obviously I haven’t played my best cricket this last year but I feel in a good place. Those stats are misleading sometimes,” he said.

“I have never experienced anything like playing in India, 10 over there felt like a good score at the time. I didn’t feel in great touch in the summer so all of a sudden you’re averaging 10.

“I feel as good as I ever have though and so I don’t look into stats too much. I will certainly look to be a bit more confident and back myself because I know full well I can score a hundred here this week and that’s what I’m looking to do.

“Everyone has seen the talent that all our batters have shown over the last few years. We’ve all got the talent to score big runs in Tests. We’ve got to get in the right headspace to perform...physically and talent wise there is no question, we can all score big runs over here.”

Coming off the back of a woeful 68 all out at the MCG, Crawley’s claims may be easy to parody given his own travails and the wider problems England have had posting big totals in recent years.

But he believes bold words and a brave approach will go further than downbeat deference to the Australian attack.

“It’s just not fearing them. I feel a few of us on our first Ashes tour, we’re a bit wary of them but there’s no need to be,” said Crawley.

“They’re great bowlers, some of the best in the world, but when you get in as Rooty and Mala (Joe Root and Dawid Malan) have shown, they’ve looked very comfortable at times.

“I don’t think it will be a tougher test (in Sydney). I think the wicket is going to be better, slightly flatter, and it’ll be a bit easier. Having watched the Ashes a fair bit, usually there seems to be a lot more runs here. I am looking forward to that and hopefully that is the case.”

England’s preparations fell victim to more Covid chaos on Sunday, with local net bowlers removed from their latest training session on the same day head coach Chris Silverwood joined the growing ranks of positive cases.

Former Yorkshire bowler Silverwood has been isolating with his family in Melbourne ever since one of them tested positive after the Boxing Day Test and a further case in their group takes the total number among the wider England party to nine.

He was already resigned to missing the game in Sydney, but his diagnosis, without symptoms, settles the issue. He will now aim to rejoin and lead the squad for the series finale in Hobart later this month.

Silverwood is the fourth member of coaching staff to contract the virus, joining bowling lead Jon Lewis, spin mentor Jeetan Patel and strength and conditioning specialist Darren Veness.

That left Silverwood’s assistant Graham Thorpe to lead a threadbare backroom team in the squad’s first practice session at the SCG, alongside temporary consultants Ant Botha and James Foster, and it was not long before that began to go off the rails too.

As is standard, England’s batters were being put through their paces by club cricketers from the surrounding area – a widely-used policy that allows lengthier sessions without imposing unreasonable workloads on the Test bowlers.

But it soon became clear that there was a problem, with the net bowlers asked to leave after around 40 minutes.

It soon transpired that one of them had returned a positive test and, although there was some suggestion that his result bore the hallmarks of a past infection, continuing the session would have compromised things even further. Questions are now being asked about how robust Cricket Australia’s vetting procedure has been.

In the absence of bowling reserves England persevered without the cavalry, with captain Joe Root at one stage seen helping out with the side-arm ‘dog stick’ – a tool coaches use to artificially recreate high pace bowling for long periods. Elsewhere, other members of the extended support staff such as communications and medical staff chipped in, helped perform drills and operate training equipment.

Former one-day captain Adam Hollioake had been drafted in to bolster a threadbare backroom team but, in keeping with an increasingly luckless trip, he was identified as a close contact after driving more than 500 miles from his home on the Gold Coast. He will now isolate at the team hotel.

Only one player on either side has so far tested positive – Australia’s Travis Head – but there remains a high sense of alert about further spread inside either camp.