Former England captain Nasser Hussain has advised Zak Crawley to consider leaving Kent in a bid to help him improve as a Test match batter.
Crawley has had a curious start to life as an international cricketer, scoring an imperious 267 against Pakistan in his final Test innings of 2020 and then averaging a meagre 10.81 in 2021.
Having been recalled to the side during the ongoing Ashes series, Crawley once again showed signs of his undoubted talent with an impressive 77 on day five of the fourth Test in Sydney.
The 23-year-old is highly regarded by England and his innings earned plaudits from former Australia captains Ricky Ponting and Ian Chappell.
"I like the look of this young man, there's something about him," Ponting told Channel 7. "He seems to be a little different with his attitude and intent than most of the other English batsman we've seen on trial in this series so far."
"Crawley is the future of England," Chappell declared on BBC Test Match Special. "You would want to go a long way with him before you drop him.
"You don't want to talk technique with him. You just have to keep his confidence up."
However, given his mixed start to international cricket so far, Hussain believes that a move to a "county with flatter pitches" would help Crawley become a more consistent Test match performer.
In his latest column for the Daily Mail, Hussain wrote: "The only currency is runs, not looking good and hitting some sweet boundaries before getting out.
"You only have to look at the way Dean Elgar played in making an unbeaten 96 in South Africa’s victory over India at Johannesburg to prove that.
"The one thing you would say is that Crawley’s bat can come across the line of the ball from gully towards mid-on and they say that’s because he is playing for Kent on pitches at Canterbury that can nibble around and he gets his leg out of the way to try to avoid lbw.
"Maybe he has to consider moving to a county with flatter pitches and getting big runs to ready himself for international cricket.
"We’ve seen Dawid Malan and Nick Gubbins leaving Middlesex in recent times for similar reasons."
