England found itself in a bit of a pickle when Zak Crawley had his finger fractured in the win over the West Indies. The injury puts a question mark over his availability for the upcoming three-match series against Sri Lanka starting on August 21 at Old Trafford.
He hurt himself when he dropped Jason Holder on the third morning of the match here in Birmingham. The injury has already made him miss the Hundred, and he will see a specialist to decide if surgery is needed.
In the absence of Crawley, Ben Stokes opened the batting, blazing a 24-ball half-century—the quickest by any Englishman in Tests. But captaincy combined with bowling and opening duties is unsustainable for any player, even one as supremely gifted as Stokes, for more than one game.
The need is for another opener, yet there is no clear candidate. Dan Lawrence was called up as cover when Ben Duckett was due to attend the birth of his first child on the eve of the second Test against West Indies in Nottingham, but Lawrence has opened only five times in his career and not since 2015. He has exhibited clear problems against the new ball, epitomized in the 2021 tour of India; he is not a long-term option.
The different route may see Ollie Pope come up to open, thereby bumping Lawrence up to three—a position from which he averages 13.25 from four innings. Stokes explained that opening at Edgbaston kept the rest of the batting order in its rightful places, which is an argument that would no doubt still stand if Crawley fell short.
In other words, as England starts crawling for replacement options for Crawley, the stability of an effective batting lineup comes in as the greatest challenge.