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ak Crawley admits he was “shocked” to be requested to captain England for the primary time as he prepares to guide the One-Day facet into motion in opposition to Ireland tomorrow.
Crawley has been named skipper of what’s nearly totally a second-string squad to face Andrew Balbirnie’s males in a three-match sequence which begins at Headingley on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old has himself performed simply three ODIs, all within the 2021 sequence in opposition to Pakistan, when a Covid outbreak pressured England to scramble collectively a reserve facet on the eleventh hour.
The batter’s inventory is sky excessive, nevertheless, off the again of an outstanding Ashes sequence by which he was England’s main run-maker and the chance to captain his nation is additional proof of the set-up’s religion within the Kent opener.
“I was shocked,” Crawley mentioned. “I was just hoping to get in the team and play more for England. They told me I was captain and it’s a great opportunity for me.
“It was Motty [head coach Matthew Mott], that gave me the call to say I’d be in the squad and captaining. It was as simple as that, he was doing the rounds phoning everyone else so it was a pretty brief phone call but a pretty good call.”
Fourteen of England’s ultimate 15-man squad for the World Cup in India have been rested for the Ireland matches, with Joe Buttler’s males resulting from fly to the subcontinent the day after the sequence finishes.
The exception is Joe Root, who has requested to play the opener in Leeds having struggled for type in the course of the latest sequence victory in opposition to New Zealand.
The 32-year-old’s inclusion signifies that whereas Crawley might be making his captaincy debut, he’ll have the ability to lean on the expertise of a person who led the Test facet on extra events than any participant in England historical past earlier than handing the armband to Ben Stokes at first of final summer season.
“Obviously having Joe in the team makes it stronger, no matter what team you’re in,” Crawley added. “It’s great having him and especially so for me as captain because I can lean on him for that kind of stuff. That’s awesome and hopefully he gets what he wants from it.”
