sport news Calls to take Zak Crawley out of firing line after disappointing innings during ... trends now

For Zak Crawley, the prospect of a major Test innings has become a matter of hope over expectation – and even the hope has almost left town.

When he was squared up by Kagiso Rabada in the first hour of this LV= Insurance series against South Africa and caught by Aiden Markam at second slip for nine, it was the 24th time in 47 Test innings he had failed to reach the sunlit uplands of double figures.

On another seven occasions, he hasn't got to 20. Only seven times has he passed 50. In the history of English Test batting, only Mike Brearley has averaged fewer than Crawley's 26 among regular members of the top six.

Whichever way you slice and dice it, his Test career is now in the lap of the Bazball gods – Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, who remain wedded to the idea that a butterfly can still emerge from the chrysalis.

They may be proved right, and the events of this summer's first four Tests against New Zealand and India have provided credit in the bank for the two high-rollers of England's red-ball revolution.

But Mark Butcher, commentating on Sky, spoke for many when he suggested it was crueller right now to keep picking Crawley than to leave him out. Week in, week out, he is undergoing a very public humiliation, with goodness knows what consequences.

Part of the Stokes/McCullum ethos is to make the players feel 'ten feet tall', which explains why – before this game – Stokes referenced Crawley's second-innings 46 against India at Edgbaston last month. Without his record-fast century stand with Alex Lees, said Stokes, England would not have chased down 378.

He had a point, and his man-management skills have been a big part of his team's early success – witness the

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