NEW DELHI: Zak Crawley joined the unfortunate list of English openers to suffer a pair of ducks in an Ashes Test after falling once again to Mitchell Starc in the first Ashes Test at Perth's Optus Stadium on Saturday.
Tasked with giving England a strong start to build on their 40-run lead, Crawley was dismissed in the very first over of the second innings, falling to a sensational one-handed catch by the experienced Aussie left-armer. Earlier, in England's first innings, Crawley had also been trapped for a duck, edging a delivery to Usman Khawaja at slip.
Mitchell Starc pulls off a blinder to dismiss Zak Crawley off his own bowling. Watch
Crawley now joins an unfortunate list of English openers, alongside Trevor Bailey (Melbourne, 1959), Dennis Amiss (Adelaide, 1975), and Michael Atherton (Melbourne, 1998), as the fourth to register a pair of ducks in an Ashes Test.
Remarkably, this also marks the first time in Test history that a wicket has fallen before a run was scored in each of the first three innings, with Crawley and Australia's Jake Weatherald previously dismissed without adding to their teams' totals.
Despite this setback, Crawley has had a productive year in Test cricket, scoring 414 runs in 12 innings across seven matches at an average of 34.50, with a strike rate exceeding 63. His tally includes a century, three fifties, and a best score of 124.
