I might be wrong but I think we had anyway because of the way the fixtures went. But yeah, confirmed now. Despite the fact we will be playing the reserves anything can happen in this format so we can still get to finals day yet.
If Crawley is our strongest opener I shudder to think what the rest of them must be like. What has he actually done in all the tests he has played (apart from one massive score that would appear to be the outlier amongst a litany of failures)?
Of course he does, as do I. The lad very clearly isn't good enough to open the batting in test match cricket. Why would you not want to pick your strongest player in each position? What does Rob Key say about Crawley?
Crawley just isn't a test match opening batsman. For all the attacking intent of the new coach and captain, the openers' job is still to protect their wicket and see off the first new ball. Crawley is poor at both of these roles.