Zak Crawley Claims Ignorance of Captain Stokes' Controversial 'Frail Characters' Remarks

The English opening batter Crawley suggested he was not familiar with comments from skipper Ben Stokes about the team environment not being "weak men".

Stokes made those words in multiple conversations in the wake of his team's loss in the second Ashes series versus Australia previously.

Ahead of the third Test, where the visitors now face a series loss at the earliest opportunity, the captain stated he had allowed his sentiment to "drift around" among the playing group.

"I've done the necessary discussions in recent days that I needed to have done," remarked Stokes.

But, following Crawley scored a knock of 85 on the fourth day in the third Test, he stated: "I missed those remarks."

"I wasn't actively searching for it. Our approach is to take everything that is said in the media with a pinch of salt," Crawley continued.

Raw Conversations and Steady Philosophy

The captain issued his "weak men" observation after England were beaten in the second Test to go 2-0 down.

The team afterwards went on a holiday to Noosa between the second and third matches.

Prior to this match, Stokes revealed his players had held "raw" talks and he had urged them to "show a bit of dog" in their battle to stay alive in the Ashes battle.

Nevertheless, the Kent batsman asserted the guidance from Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum had remained in line with their prior tenure in charge.

"The atmosphere has been very positive, the same as always," said the opener. "The focus is on maintaining positivity, playing our brand, with great liberty. We believed we were capable of something special entering this game."

Australia Close of Rapid Series Victory

The opener's wicket late on Saturday was part of a decisive triple-strike by Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon.

Lyon's triple strike in 20 deliveries – including the wickets of Brook and Stokes himself – meant the chasing side 207-6 in pursuit of a daunting total of 435.

This means, Australia need just four more wickets on the last day to move to an insurmountable 3-0 lead after three matches played.

A loss will extend England's winless run in Australia to 18 consecutive matches and condemn them to a fourth successive overseas Ashes series loss.

The current battle will be completed in only 11 days of play – after England fell the initial matches in rapid time respectively.

The last time 1921, when the Australians completed a series win in the UK in eight days, has the destination of the urn been decided more swiftly. Australia have also won in eleven days on two other instances in the 21st century.

"This is disheartening," said Crawley. "Our goal was to regain the Ashes and we're staring down the barrel at this point."

"There will still be significant pride at stake and we'll certainly approach it like that," he continued.

"The challenge has been difficult. They're a very, very good team. It was always going to be hard coming here to face them. They entered as the front-runners and they've proven why."

Ollie Pope's Place Under Scrutiny

Although the opener's innings in Adelaide probably answers doubts about his immediate future in the side, Ollie Pope appears under threat for his position in the Melbourne Test starting December 26th.

Pope fell for 17 runs in England's second knock on Saturday, adding to his modest returns against the old enemy.

Across 16 Ashes innings, the Surrey man has never made a fifty and averages just 17.62.

A solitary other England player since 1900 – Amiss – has played an equal number of innings in the top order in Ashes Tests and returned a poorer average.

However, Crawley insisted any notion Pope is being scrutinised comes from "you guys" – referring to the journalists – "and not within the team."

"We all know how good of a player he is," added Crawley. "He has had a good year to be frank."

"He has played some really good knocks. It is noise from the outside. There is no chat of that nature regarding Pope amongst the players," Crawley concluded.