As Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley strolled to the wicket shortly before 3.20pm on Monday afternoon you could have been forgiven for thinking there was little to gain.

There was no chance of a winner in England’s second Test against Pakistan due to previous rain and bad light having limited us to just 96.2 overs across the first four days, and there were no fans inside the Ageas Bowl to watch the 38.1 overs of play before Joe Root’s declaration sealed a draw.

• England vs Pakistan ends in a draw
• Second Test scorecard

Yet as the gloom that had engulfed much of the Test was replaced with a spell of sustained sunshine, Crawley also shone.

He certainly wouldn’t have seen his third Test fifty, and first from the No 3 spot, as any less significant than his previous two despite it coming in a game that was going absolutely nowhere.

Crawley had looked set for a lengthy run at first drop after winning his battle with Kent colleague Joe Denly for a batting during the first Test against West Indies last month.

Both players knew that with Root returning for the second Test following the birth of his second child, that one of them would miss out.

Both got in and got out in the first innings against West Indies but whereas Denly followed suit second time around – a staple of his 15-Test career – Crawley got in and pushed on, making 76 from No 4 and sealing his spot at No 3 for the following week.

He only got one Test in that position, though, before losing his place – not because of his admittedly disappointing return of nought and 11 but because England opted to tinker with the make-up of the side and play an extra seamer with a quad niggle leaving Ben Stokes unable to bowl, save for a few overs in the series opener against Pakistan.

With Stokes missing the rest of the series through family reasons, however, Crawley was restored at No 3 at The Ageas Bowl last week and went on to impress during a Test in which, when play was possible, proceedings were pretty much bossed by the bowlers.

When the 22-year-old first headed to the crease it was to face the fifth ball of England’s innings, with Rory Burns having edged Shaheen Afridi’s fourth delivery into the grateful hands of Asad Shafiq at slip – after edging the same bowler just short of the same fielder from the first delivery.

Pakistan, who looked like taking a wicket every ball during a spellbinding five overs on Sunday morning before more rain and bad light, then believed they had Crawley lbw for a golden duck, only for their review to fail when UltraEdge showed the batsman had nicked the ball. Even if he hadn’t, the ball would probably have missed the leg stump anyway.

Crawley battled through another over from Shaheen and one from the metronomic Mohammad Abbas to make it to five not out – and then cashed in as he played with confidence on Monday afternoon.

He even had Nasser Hussain purring on commentary when he skipped down the pitch and lofted Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah over mid-off.

“Typical Crawley, I like the look of this lad,” Nasser said, while hailing his tempo and desire to keep the scoreboard ticking in tough conditions. Something his predecessor at No 3, Denly, often had trouble with.

Crawley also batted slightly out of his crease to try and negate the threat of seam supremo Abbas. The bowler so often seems to have the ball on a piece of string but perhaps Crawley’s tactics threw him off somewhat with two rare short balls in one over carted to the boundary.

“I know him very well but every time I see him he impresses me. He surprises me how good he is,” Sky Sports’ Rob Key said about Crawley.

“It’s one thing having all the shots, being able to run down to the spinners in the nets, and another being able to use them. He got one wrong against Yasir in this game but most of the time he gets his plans right.

“When Abbas is swinging and seaming it everywhere, when are you going to come out of your ground and do everything you do in practice? He has pretty much done that at such a young age. He was straight out of his ground and occasionally walked down.”

It wasn’t a chanceless innings, with the “one he got wrong against Yasir” looking likely to see him stumped on 37 only for Pakistan wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan to make a hash of the opportunity and Crawley to reach 53 before Abbas pinned him lbw.

Crawley appeared crestfallen as he trudged off, sensing that the maiden Test hundred that he “pinches himself thinking about in his hotel room at night” was there for the taking. Surely Root would have delayed his declaration had his team-mate been closing in a century?

That is three times now Crawley has reached fifty in Tests and got out, a trait he won’t want to continue, but the authority and confidence with which he bats suggests that three-figure total is imminent and that he is going to be there as England’s No 3 for the long haul.

Crawley’s numbers don’t do his obvious ability justice at the minute – his first-class average after 44 matches is below 31, with his Test one after seven games standing at 28.54.

But two of England’s most successful players of recent times, Marcus Trescothick and Michael Vaughan, were also selected without stellar statistics behind them. Gut feel turned out well on those occasions and it looks like it may well do with Crawley as well.

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