NASSER HUSSAIN: Zak Crawley is getting into much better positions after work on his technique

Zak Crawley played very well on Thursday and you could see the technical work he’s been putting in over the past few months paying off.

What has looked promising for him so far this summer is that he honed his technique and lined up the ball nicely again on Thursday.

Previously he had a very wide batting stance and in New Zealand earlier this year he played quite a bit for himself.

He has since narrowed his stance and that has resulted in him placing his weight and his head much more over his forefoot, which has improved his entire balance at the crease.

When he regained his weight, he pushed his hands in front of his body with a braced front leg, while now he can play the ball directly under him later and bend that front knee into the discs.

The English opener struggles when the floodlights come on and the ball starts to move a bit

The opener went well before being bumped off Nathan Lyon’s bowling alley by Alex Carey

He’s always run well through the middle, but some rides through extra cover lately have made it clear that he’s in a really good place now.

Although it was on an Edgbaston pitch where the ball didn’t move much, Pat Cummins’ first ball ‘popped’ to mark the start of this Ashes series highlighted the touch he’s in – technically he starts much better positions when he faces the sailors.

England coach Brendon McCullum has said Crawley’s play is fit to be inconsistent – as we saw in the last game at Birmingham. He looked a million dollars. When the floodlights came on, he picked it up.

That pretty much sums up his career: when things aren’t going his way, he looks vulnerable and when he’s not, he looks like a world beater. Therefore, he averages 31 in first-class cricket and 29 in Test match cricket.

Crawley has shown himself to be a player who can make big hundreds and double hundreds, but his challenge now is to achieve more consistency, building on that sharpening of his technique by working on the mental side of shot selection.

As I said, he played brilliantly on day two for his 48, after a 66 in the first innings of the series at Edgbaston and he’s not far off silencing the doubters completely.

But even in Bazball’s day – and backed by Ben Stokes, McCullum and Rob Key – you want to make money for your own peace of mind when you play this well.

He might look back here at a 48 when he was “in” knowing he needed to develop a more ruthless character.

The Kent opener has long had the support of captain Ben Stokes (left) and coach Brendon McCullum (right)

He might look back here at a 48 when he was ‘in’, knowing he had to develop a more ruthless character

Because as an opener in England he knows he can show up at Headingley next week and it will fly around. Openers can drop out early in that situation and 48 followed by a single digit score leaves you a bit under pressure.

You could say: Well, isn’t that the same for everyone? Well, yes and no. Think of an old-time opener like Andrew Strauss, who might have averaged 42 when flat and 37 when the ball went around. Crawley’s challenge is to bring his own gap closer together.

Soft is a hard word, but the kind of softness he showed when he went to Nathan Lyon needs to be removed.

Along with Ben Duckett, Crawley had deflected that new ball and then faced Lyon, an off-spinner who’s hard to get off the pitch – he’s already dumbfounded Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Joe Root – the only time Joe is ever dumbfounded in first-class cricket – in this series.

The reason Lyon has gotten so many of those particular sacks is because he drops and sinks the ball because of the overspin he gets on it.

His skill is to trick a batsman into thinking the ball is there to hit when it is two feet shorter than visualized. So the shot selection when you leave your fold has to be perfect.

For a batter, you better make sure you reach the pitch of the ball and if you don’t get there kick it out and get back into your crease.

Ben Duckett has just 12 leaves in his last 12 test matches, highlighting his positive approach

The openers have been in the top stand for the first wicket in an Ashes Test for England since 2010-11

Crawley and Duckett played brilliantly, going five over to emphatically answer the question: can you take on Australia?

People also asked if Duckett could score points against Australia without leaving the ball? See, he can. That is now 12 leaves in 12 exhibition games. He just plays it differently.

For traditional England openers like Geoffrey Boycott, Michael Atherton and Graham Gooch, the furlough was a big part of their arsenal. For Duckett, that’s not the case.

And there was a lot to be positive about in both contributors to England’s biggest opening stand in an Ashes match since 2010-11.