England opener Crawley is a real problem now for captain Ben Stokes

The glance over the right shoulder is becoming all too familiar. Zak Crawley has been here plenty of times before and if the pre-match words of his captain Ben Stokes are to be taken at face value he will have the chance to be in similar positions again.

As a bulging Indian slip cordon congratulated Shubman Gill, whose catch completed the tame dismissal, Crawley turned on his heel and trudged across the Edgbaston turf like a man hiding his struggles in plain sight.

Amid the fervour of astronomic scoring rates, breathless chases and a belief that England had cracked the code of Test cricket under Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the 24-year-old's struggles were easily overlooked against New Zealand.

Four times at the start of that 3-0 series win, he had nicked off cheaply only for the extraordinary exploits of others to shift the focus elsewhere.

But as the examinations of England's bold new world intensify, as they did under relentlessly high-class seam bowling from Jasprit Bumrah and Co on Saturday, so will the scrutiny placed on a player who has now made 20 single-figure scores in his last 33 Test innings.

At Leeds last week, the Kent opener batted as if he knew his time was up, only for Stokes to go out of his way ahead of this rearranged fifth Test from the curtailed 2021 series to insist otherwise.

Such an open-ended vote of confidence was perhaps one last attempt by a captain trying to cajole a change in form.

If it was not, and he does not get a score at the second time of asking here, retaining him against South Africa next month would be a dangerous precedent to set and render a selection process using county performances as its base defunct.

Plenty of others have been cast aside with superior averages to the 26.28