Kent's Zak Crawley says latest England call-up may have helped fuel return to form after back-to-back County Championship half-centuries against Northamptonshire

Kent’s Zak Crawley has suggested his latest England Test call-up may have helped fuel his return to form.

Crawley scored two half-centuries in their drawn County Championship Division 1 match against Northamptonshire.

He backed up a first-innings 62 with 84 in the second innings having previously only had one half-century to his name this summer for Kent.

When Crawley does link-up with England, the 24-year-old will work alongside their new-look management team for the first time, which has Brendon McCullum as England’s new Test head coach, former Kent skipper Rob Key as managing director and all-rounder Ben Stokes as Test captain.

Crawley said: “It's always nice being picked for England and I can't wait to get going with them. So, it fills me with a lot of energy, and maybe that’s why I got a couple of runs this week.

“I’m excited about Brendon McCullum coming in. I love watching him play and I'm sure I'm going to love working with him as a coach.

“So, I think he might suit me actually - quite a positive coach - so I look forward to seeing if that's the case. But he's, obviously, a great character in the sport and I’m looking forward to it.

“If I time my form well and I score runs in Test cricket, that will mean an awful lot to me. That's not to say I don’t want to score runs every time I go out to bat, and I've been disappointed that I haven’t been able to help Kent as much as I’d have wanted to this year.

“But everyone knows Test cricket is the pinnacle and, if I can get a hundred in the next couple of weeks, that might put the last few weeks right.”

At Northamptonshire, the sides shook hands on the draw with Kent 170-1 in their second innings on Sunday.

“I thought we played pretty well,” reflected Crawley, speaking on