England cricket player ratings: Harry Brook stars again but Zak Crawley’s struggles vs New Zealand continue

We rate England’s players out of 10 after their series-clinching 323-run win over New Zealand in the second Test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.

Zak Crawley – 4/10

17 off 23 balls
8 off 7 balls

It is cricketing lore, certainly in the ‘Bazball’ era, that there must always be one batter battling for form and for their place in the side – two wins in two and the series secured, or not – and that man right now is Crawley. As it has been too often in his 52-Test career.

Crawley averages only a smidge over 30 across that rather considerable sample size, and his record against New Zealand in particular makes for grim reading – an average of 10.15 across 10 Tests following his latest two failures.

He did still find the time to become only the second batter, after the West Indies’ Chris Gayle, to hit a six in the first over of a Test match, while his back-to-back boundaries belted through the covers to open England’s second innings were reminiscent of his eye-catching opening to the Ashes at Edgbaston last year, but brief cameos of that ilk surely can’t sustain him too much longer.

Also, it’s now four times in four innings (and six times overall) that Matt Henry has taken his wicket, with Crawley yet to register a single run against the seamer yet this series. Yikes!

Ben Duckett – 7/10

0 off 8 balls
92 off 112 balls

Henry also bagged Duckett for a duck in the first innings, the opener’s famed reluctance to leave any delivery contributing to his downfall as, in massively seamer-friendly conditions, he poked a thick edge to second slip in England’s 43-4 start on the first morning.

He was back to his best on his second go round though, his 92 off 112 balls – part of an 187-run stand for the second wicket with Jacob Bethell – seeing him move third on the leading run-scorers list in Tests for 2024, his 1,134 for the year trailing only India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal (1,304) and Joe Root (1,470).

Missing out on a fifth Test ton will niggle away at him, mind you, as he followed in Bethell’s footsteps by falling in the nineties, chopping one onto his stumps off Tim Southee.

Jacob Bethell – 8/10

16 off 28 balls
96 off 118 balls

Bethell again “looked to the manor born”, as poetically put by Sky Sports’ Ian Ward after the 21-year-old notched his career-best first-class score in England’s second innings.

A maiden Test ton was within his grasp, only a boundary away, and so it was no great surprise to see the swashbuckling left-hander perish when attempting precisely the sort of expansive drive that could have got him there.

The youngster didn’t appear too devastated by his demise, another tick next to his temperament two Tests into his England career, and what initially looked like a short-lived experiment at No 3 leading into this series could end up being a permanent solution as he tightens his grip on the position with each passing knock.

Joe Root – 8/10

3 off 7 balls
106 off 130 balls

Root fell foul of those seamer-friendly conditions on the first morning when carding a rare low one, before he has back to his hundred-scoring ways in the second – brought up in some style too with a trademark reverse-ramp for four.

His 106 off 130 balls stretched over days two and three represents a sixth Test ton of 2024, a 19th since 2021 – 10 more than Kane Williamson’s next-best mark of nine – and a 36th for his career, tying Rahul Dravid for fifth all-time among the game’s most prolific century makers.

Is he the best player in the world? “He is right now, unquestionably,” according to Sky Sports’ Michael Atherton. “It’s an incredible run of form. He is playing quite beautifully and at his absolute best.”

Harry Brook – 9/10

123 off 115 balls
55 off 61 balls

If Root is best in the world, this man – Player of the Match after scoring a second successive century in the series – is a close second. Quite literally, according to the current ICC Test rankings.

His eighth Test hundred is also Brook’s personal “favourite”, he said after rescuing England from 43-4 in the first innings, sharing in a vital 174-run partnership with Ollie Pope – more on him in a second – to truly lay the groundwork for the tourists’ series-clinching victory, skipper Ben Stokes hailing the pair’s “bravery”.

It’s also his seventh overseas century, improving his astonishing average away from home to a Sir Don Bradman-esque 91.50.

Ollie Pope – 7/10

66 off 78 balls
10 off 26 balls

Leading into the series, Pope was in the same boat Crawley currently finds himself due to a poor run of form at No 3.

While he is far from out of the woods yet – his Test future looking vulnerable as Bethell settles into the top order and with Jamie Smith certain to come straight back into the side as his paternity leave concludes with this tour – he has made some vital contributions to England’s series success.

As well as proving a more than capable deputy with the wicketkeeping gloves, Pope’s switch to No 6 has allowed him to rediscover some touch with the bat away from the added glare of first wicket down. It has also seen him share in a couple of rescue missions with Brook – from 71-4 to 222-5 in the first Test and 43-4 to 217-5 here – rather than have a hand in the flimsy foundations as he was previously.

He certainly looks more at home in the middle order, but it’s hard to see a more permanent home for him there in the future.

Ben Stokes – 7/10

2 off 15 balls
49no off 42 balls
1-21 from 8 overs
3-5 from 2.2 overs

There are encouraging signs that Stokes might just be starting to rediscover his best form after hamstring injury absence from August followed closely on the back of a long-running knee issue that required surgery last winter.

Stokes played against the West Indies in early summer and then, after missing the Sri Lanka series, returned for the final two Tests of the Pakistan tour but his bowling spells were minimal, almost as brief as his contributions with the bat.

A quick-fire 49 off 42 balls in the second-innings here was more the vintage, boundary-clearing Stokes we’ve come to know and love, while he also bagged three bonus wickets at the back-end to wrap up the win in Wellington.

Chris Woakes – 6/10

1-26 from 8 overs
2-20 from 10 overs

Woakes hasn’t exactly screamed for your attention in this series like his fellow seamers, but he has quietly gone about taking six wickets at an average of 29.16.

In the contest of his much-publicised struggles overseas, that is his second-highest haul in any series away from home, second only to the 2017/18 Ashes, where he took 10 wickets across four Tests at an average 49.50, which is actually worse than his career average outside of the UK (48.93).

Might the 35-year-old have finally cracked it away from home? Perhaps that might be a stretch too far, but certainly his opening spell in the second innings was standout, with Devon Conway bowled through the gate by a beauty and the great Williamson sent packing cheaply, nicking off, to set England on the course for a comfortable victory.

Gus Atkinson – 7/10

4-31 from 8.5 overs
1-68 from 12 overs

Perhaps 7-10 is a touch harsh for a man to take only England’s 15th hat-trick in Test history, but Atkinson himself even admitted after his starring moment to end the New Zealand first innings that he has struggled at times for rhythm and not yet found his peak form on this tour.

Well, he certainly located it for three deliveries on the second morning of the Test, first flattening Nathan Smith’s middle stump via an inside edge, getting Henry fending a short ball to gully, and then securing his place in the history books with the perfect poker face as he bluffed Southee lbw with the field set back for short-pitched bowling.

Well played, sir.

Brydon Carse – 8/10

4-46 from 10 overs
2-53 from 11 overs

Carse, again, was the pick of the seamers, following up his Player of the Match 10-for in the series-opener in Christchurch with a further six scalps here – taking series tally to a staggering 16 wickets at an average of 12.8.

And that conceivably have been 17, but for a no-ball costing him a stunning dismissal of Williamson for 20 in the first innings, sending his off stump back with a beauty that pitched in line and just straightened a touch to deceive the Black Caps great.

Carse would more than make amends for his error, firstly taking a terrific diving catch as part of Rachin Ravindra’s first-innings downfall and by ultimately taking the wicket of Williamson anyway for 37, as part of a late double-strike on day one that also saw off Daryl Mitchell. Carse would then bowl Tom Blundell with a near-identical delivery to his Williamson wicket that never was early on the second morning, before adding two more top-order victims to his tally in the second innings.

Shoaib Bashir – 6/10

2-110 from 19 overs

Able to put his feet up for much of this Test, not required in the first innings as the seamers did all the work.

He was called up in the second and, as has been the case ever since making his Test debut in India to start the year, Bashir showed great character in the face of some real intent shown by Blundell against him – four of the batter’s five sixes for his inning coming against the off-spinner.

But the 21-year-old would have the last laugh, thanks to a helping hand from Duckett as he claimed a terrific catch running round from slip as the the Black Caps batter looked to sweep, while Bashir’s other wicket, earlier on the third day was a beauty to bowl Glenn Phillips through the gate.

England’s Test tour of New Zealand