Crawley Claims Ignorance of Captain Stokes' Provocative 'Frail Characters' Comments

The English opening batter Crawley suggested he had no knowledge of comments from captain Ben Stokes regarding the dressing room as no place for "weak men".

Stokes delivered this message in several conversations following his team's defeat in the second match of the Ashes against the Australians previously.

Ahead of the third Test, where England now face defeat with a match to spare, Stokes stated he had allowed his message to "drift around" within the playing group.

"I have completed the necessary discussions in recent days that I needed to have done," said the England leader.

But, after the opener made a knock of 85 on the fourth day in Adelaide, he commented: "I didn't see that."

"I didn't see and wasn't really looking out for it. We take anything stated in the media with some skepticism," he added.

Frank Discussions and Steady Philosophy

The captain made the "weak men" observation subsequent to England suffered a loss in Brisbane to go two matches behind.

The team subsequently went on a holiday to Noosa between the second and the upcoming matches.

Prior to the Adelaide contest, he said his players had held "raw" conversations and he had urged them to "show a bit of dog" in their battle to remain in contention in the Ashes battle.

Nevertheless, the Kent batsman asserted the messaging from Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum had stayed consistent with their prior three years in leadership.

"The atmosphere has been extremely upbeat, the same as always," said Crawley. "The focus is just trying to be optimistic, playing our brand, with lots of freedom. It felt like we could do something special entering this Test."

Australia On the Verge of Rapid Ashes Triumph

The opener's wicket on day four came during a decisive triple-strike by Australia spinner Nathan Lyon.

Lyon's triple strike in a short spell – including the wickets of Harry Brook and Ben Stokes – left the chasing side 207-6 in pursuit of a daunting total of 435.

This means, Australia require just four more wickets on the last day to move to an insurmountable three-nil lead with three matches played.

Defeat would prolong England's drought in this country to 18 consecutive matches and condemn them to a fourth successive overseas Ashes series loss.

This series is set to be decided in just 11 days of play – after England losing the first two Tests in two and four days respectively.

Not since 1921, when Australia completed a series win in England in eight days, has the destination of the urn been decided more swiftly. The hosts have also won in 11 days on two other instances in the modern era.

"It's disheartening," admitted Crawley. "Our goal was to regain the Ashes and now we are facing elimination now."

"There will still be significant pride at stake and we'll certainly approach it with that mindset," he continued.

"It's been tough. Australia is a very, very good team. It was inevitably tough coming here to face them. They entered as the favourites coming in to it they've proven why."

Ollie Pope's Place In Question

Although the opener's innings in Adelaide probably answers questions about his short-term future in the side, Ollie Pope looks under immense pressure for his position in the Melbourne Test on Boxing Day.

The Surrey batsman fell for 17 runs in the team's second knock on Saturday, extending his poor record versus Australia.

Across sixteen Ashes knocks, Pope has never made a half-century and averages just 17.62.

A solitary other English batsman in over a century – Amiss – has played as many times in the top order in the Ashes and returned a poorer average.

But, Crawley insisted any notion his teammate is under the microscope comes from "the media" – referring to the press – "and not within the team."

"We all know how good of a player he is," added he. "He has had a good year if I'm honest."

"He has played some really good knocks. It is noise externally. There's no discussion like that on Ollie in the camp," Crawley concluded.