England opener Zak Crawley is one of the tallest players in the game at the moment. While bigger heights are generally associated with pace bowlers, Crawley is taller than the majority of English pacers part of the current squad. Hence, Crawley has been getting a lot of attention due to his elevation lately.
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Former Australia batter Matthew Hayden was also famous for his big height, but even he is a little shorter than Crawley. For the unversed, Hayden is one of the only three cricketers (along with Greg Chappell and Jacques Kallis) to be over 6ft and having scored more than 5,000 Test runs at an average of more than 50.
Zak Crawley Height
Crawley’s height is said to be around 1.96 metre, i.e., 6’5”. Only pacer Stuart Broad (1.98 m) is taller than Crawley in the current English setup. The other pacers such as Ollie Robinson (1.95 m), Josh Tongue (1.93 m), James Anderson (1.88 m), Chris Woakes (1.85 m), Mark Wood (1.83 m) etc. are all smaller than the opening batter.
The difference in height between Crawley and his opening partner, Ben Duckett, is talked about a lot across social media. Since Crawley is around a metre Taller than Duckett, it is a massive gap for two opening partners.
Duckett is one of the smallest players in the cricketing fraternity. Weirdly, Duckett was seen standing in between Crawley and Broad (the two tallest players) during the national anthem last month.
There are different advantages and disadvantages of tall batters in cricket. We generally have not seen many tall batters getting successful in the longest format of the game. Let’s have a look at the benefits of a tall batter like Crawley in this sport.
How 1.96 Metre Tall Zak Crawley Benefits As a Batter Because Of His Height
Tall batters are generally destined to do well in the shorter formats. Power is more important in the T20 format and bigger batters have bigger levers which allows them to hit huge shots. They are very much efficient against the short balls as it is difficult for any bowler to hit a proper bouncer to them.
Since batters generally tend to defend short ball in Test cricket, it can become an area of concern for the lanky individuals. Because they have to come down to reach the balll, that extra time makes the job slightly tougher for them.
