PERTH — Zak Crawley has become a lightning rod for English anger following the two-day implosion in the opening Ashes Test. Yet the out-of-form opener is in no danger of losing his place anytime soon.

What the 27-year-old has to do to get dropped is a good question. Yet having kept faith with Crawley and invested so much in his opening partnership with Ben Duckett, the shocking start in Perth, where he scored a pair and lasted just 11 balls across both innings , will not change his standing with Brendon McCullum.

England’s coach made a point of backing the Kent man in the aftermath of Saturday’s shocking batting collapse that handed the first Test to Australia. “If he can get going, he can do some damage,” he said.

But the problem is Crawley has rarely got going of late. In fact, his

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