Crawley Claims Ignorance of Stokes' Controversial 'Weak Men' Comments

England opening batter Crawley suggested he was not familiar with comments from captain Ben Stokes regarding the dressing room as no place for "those lacking fortitude".

The all-rounder made those words in several conversations following his team's defeat in the second Ashes against the Australians previously.

Ahead of the Adelaide Test, where the visitors are staring at defeat with a match to spare, Stokes stated he had allowed his sentiment to "circulate freely" within the playing group.

"I have completed all the talking over the past two days that I needed to have done," remarked Stokes.

But, following the opener made 85 on the fourth day in the third Test, he stated: "I missed those remarks."

"I didn't see and wasn't really looking out for it. Our approach is to take everything that is said in the media with a pinch of salt," Crawley continued.

Raw Conversations and Consistent Messaging

Stokes issued his "fragile individuals" comment subsequent to England suffered a loss in the second Test to go two matches behind.

The team afterwards took a holiday to Noosa between the second and the upcoming Tests.

Before the Adelaide contest, he revealed his players had held "raw" talks and he had asked them to "show a bit of dog" in their battle to stay in contention in the series.

Yet, the Kent batsman stated the messaging from Stokes and head coach McCullum had stayed in line with their previous tenure in leadership.

"The atmosphere has been very positive, unchanged," noted the opener. "It's on maintaining positivity, play our way, with great liberty. It felt like we could do an extraordinary feat entering this Test."

The Hosts On the Verge of Historic Ashes Triumph

The opener's wicket late on Saturday came during a decisive triple-strike by Australian off-spinner Lyon.

The spinner's triple strike in a short spell – he also bowled Harry Brook and Ben Stokes – left England 207-6 in pursuit of a daunting target of 435.

Consequently, Australia need just four more wickets on the last day to secure an insurmountable three-nil advantage with three matches played.

Defeat would prolong England's drought in Australia to 18 consecutive matches and ensure a fourth successive away Ashes series loss.

The current battle will be completed in just 11 days of play – after England losing the first two Tests in rapid time each.

The last time 1921, when the Australians sealed victory in the UK in eight days, has the destination of the Ashes urn been decided more swiftly. Australia have also won in eleven days on two other occasions in the modern era.

"This is disappointing," admitted the batsman. "Our goal was to win the Ashes and now we are staring down the barrel at this point."

"There remains significant pride at stake and we will certainly approach it like that," Crawley added.

"It's been difficult. Australia is a formidable team. It was inevitably hard touring here to face them. They entered as the front-runners and they've proven why."

Pope's Place Under Scrutiny

While Crawley's performance in Adelaide likely secures doubts about his immediate future in the side, Ollie Pope appears under threat for his spot in the fourth Test starting December 26th.

The Surrey batsman was out for 17 in the team's second innings on Saturday, adding to his poor record versus the old enemy.

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

Only one other English batsman since 1900 – Amiss – has played as many times in the top order in Ashes Tests and returned a lower average.

However, the opener insisted any notion his teammate is being scrutinised originates with "the media" – referring to the journalists – "not inside the camp."

"We all know how good of a player he is," said he. "Ollie has enjoyed a good year to be frank."

"He has produced some really good knocks. It is talk from the outside. There is no discussion like that regarding Pope in the camp," he concluded.