Ashes 2025-26: ‘We’re staring down the barrel’ – Crawley admits England outplayed as series slips away in Adelaide

England opener Zak Crawley admitted that his side have found it impossible to play the same way in Australia as they have in the past and acknowledged that they are staring down the barrel heading into the final day of the third Ashes Test in Adelaide. Crawley top-scored for England with 85 on Day 4, but his dismissal left Australia needing just four more wickets on Day 5 to go 3-0 up in the series, effectively sealing a home Ashes victory at the earliest possible opportunity for the fourth consecutive series.

England arrived in Australia with high hopes of halting their poor recent record Down Under, but they have been comfortably outplayed throughout the series. The visitors have struggled to impose their much-discussed ‘Bazball’ approach, scoring at a significantly slower rate than Australia.

“They’ve bowled very well, and haven’t given us a lot. You look at [Scott] Boland, just for one of them. He just very rarely misses, and so it’s hard to play that way that we have in the past, perhaps. They have to get credit for that there and they set good fields, in fairness to them. It’s just an attritional style of cricket over here, and they don’t allow it. It’s not as easy to score quickly out here,” said Crawley as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

“They’re the best bowling attack that I’ve played against, for sure – especially in these conditions, when it was spinning like that for [Nathan] Lyon. They don’t give you anything, they make the ball move, and they’re relentless. We knew that coming in. We knew we had to be at our best, and unfortunately, we’ve been just short of that. But in fairness to them, they’ve been phenomenal for the last three games,” he added.

England’s public response to falling 2-0 behind in the Ashes has largely centred on their approach and attitude, with captain Ben Stokes insisting that the dressing room is not a place for weak men and calling on his players to show greater fight. However, Crawley offered a more pragmatic assessment, conceding that England are simply being outplayed by a superior Australian side.

“It’s been tough. They’re a very, very good side. I feel like it was always going to be tough coming up here against them. They were the favorites going into it and they’ve proven why. They’ve played very, very well and made it very hard for us. Obviously we’ve been slightly short of our best, but a lot of credit has to go to them: they’ve not allowed us to be our best, really,” said Crawley.

“You’re always looking to get better, and find ways that you can compete better. I do like to keep it simple though, and I do just think they’ve been better than us. A lot of the time, especially in England, we look internally and go, ‘Oh, what could we have done better?’ But they haven’t allowed us to do [that]. They’ve played really well. Obviously we could have been better, and that’s a given, but they’ve made it very hard for us. They’re a top team in their own conditions, and they’ve made it hard for us,” he added.

Crawley was uncharacteristically restrained during his innings of 85, managing just one run from his first 28 deliveries and finishing with a strike rate of 56.29, well below his career average of 65.53. However, he explained that the slower tempo was not a conscious change in approach but a result of the relentless accuracy of Australia’s bowling attack, which allowed him very few scoring opportunities.

“I was just trying to see-ball and hit-ball, really. I wasn’t purposely a bit slower. They bowled well. They didn’t give me a lot early. I was just trying to just play every ball on its merits… it wasn’t on purpose. We came here to win the Ashes and we’re staring down the barrel now. There’ll still be plenty to play for [in Melbourne and Sydney] and we’ll definitely view it like that,” said Crawley.