England have named an unchanged squad for the final Ashes Test at the Oval, as they seek to build on two positive performances – and wash away the disappointment of a draw at Old Trafford on Sunday – by securing the victory they need to level the series.
Australia have retained the Ashes, with England unable to overhaul their 2-1 lead after being denied the chance to convert a dominant position into victory by two days of near‑constant rainfall in Manchester.
Should they choose to refresh the side who played that game England have the option of bringing in Josh Tongue, who claimed a five-fer for Worcestershire against Leicestershire in the County Championship last week, the seamer Ollie Robinson, or the batter Dan Lawrence, who performed less impressively for Essex against Kent, scoring 30 runs across his two innings.
However, England will change nothing about their approach, having won the third Test at Headingley and dominated most of the play that was possible in the fourth match of the series last week.
“We’ll play the same way and we know we can make a big score,” said Zak Crawley, who scored 189 in his first and only innings at Old Trafford as England reached 592.
“The beauty of a five-Test series is you get to look at them, to work out tactics and nuances. If felt like we were getting on top of them [in Manchester], and if we’d won that game it would have been very interesting to see how they [reacted]. They’ve got some very good players and would have bounced back, but the momentum would have been with us for sure.”
Crawley’s mammoth ton was his fourth Test century and continued an impressive series – in seven innings so far he has two scores under 30, two in the 40s and two of 60 or more. “I feel I’m as good a player as I have ever been,” he said.
“I feel good about my game, I’m pleased with how I’m playing – I’ve just got to build on it. I have a bit more experience now, things to fall back on in different conditions, so I feel I can kick on now. And I feel quicker attacks bring the best out of me. Fast bowling suits my game. The Australian attack is a quick attack and I think a bit less when they’re faster.”
Though the 25-year-old admitted England were left “flat” and “disappointed” by the way the fourth Test concluded, he said they would be “massively up for it” when presented with a chance to deny Australia a series win at the Oval. “I think 2-2 would be fair,” he said.
“They had the better of us at Lord’s, Edgbaston could have gone either way, we probably deserved to win at Old Trafford and Headingley could have gone either way.
“So I think 2-2 would be right, and hopefully we can get it. Any game you want to win but as Stokesy [Ben Stokes] says, we’re building a team. This isn’t the end just because it’s the Ashes – it’s very much the start.”
