The English opening batter Crawley has indicated he had no knowledge of comments made by skipper Ben Stokes about the team environment as no place for "those lacking fortitude".
The all-rounder delivered those words in multiple interviews in the wake of his team's defeat in the second Ashes series against Australia earlier this month.
Ahead of the third Test, where the visitors now face a series loss with a match to spare, the captain noted he had let his sentiment to "drift around" within the playing group.
"I've done the necessary discussions over the past two days that I required," said Stokes.
But, after the opener scored 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. Our approach is to take everything that is said in the media with some skepticism," Crawley continued.
Frank Discussions and Steady Philosophy
The captain made the "fragile individuals" comment subsequent to his side suffered a loss in the second Test to go 2-0 down.
The team afterwards took a holiday to a Queensland resort in the gap between the second and the upcoming Tests.
Prior to this match, Stokes said his players had held "honest" 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 guidance from the captain and head coach Brendon McCullum had remained in line with their prior tenure in charge.
"The atmosphere has been very positive, unchanged," noted the opener. "The focus is on maintaining positivity, play our way, with lots of freedom. It felt like we could do something special entering this game."
Australia Close of Rapid Ashes Triumph
Crawley's dismissal on day four came during a decisive three-wicket burst by Australian off-spinner Lyon.
The spinner's triple strike in a short spell – including the wickets of Harry Brook and Ben Stokes – left England 207-6 in pursuit of a daunting target of 435 runs.
This means, the home team need just four more wickets on the last day to move to an insurmountable three-nil lead after three matches played.
A loss would prolong the English team's drought in Australia to 18 consecutive matches and condemn them to a fourth successive away Ashes defeat.
This series will be completed in only 11 days of cricket – after England fell the initial matches in rapid time each.
The last time 1921, when Australia completed a series win in the UK in eight days, has the destination of the Ashes urn been decided more swiftly. Australia have also triumphed in 11 days on two other occasions in the 21st century.
"This is disappointing," admitted the batsman. "Our goal was to regain the Ashes and we're staring down the barrel at this point."
"There remains significant pride at stake and we will certainly approach it with that mindset," he continued.
"The challenge has been difficult. They're a very, very good team. It was inevitably tough coming here against them. They were the front-runners coming in to it have demonstrated their quality."
Ollie Pope's Place In Question
Although the opener's innings in the third Test likely secures questions about his short-term place in the England team, Ollie Pope looks under threat for his position in the fourth Test starting December 26th.
Pope was out for 17 in England's second innings on Saturday, extending his poor record versus the old enemy.
Across 16 Ashes innings, the Surrey man has failed to score a fifty and averages 17.62.
A solitary other English batsman in over a century – Amiss – has played as many times in the top six in the Ashes and returned a poorer average.
However, the opener said any notion Pope is under the microscope comes from "you guys" – meaning the press – "not inside the camp."
"We all know how good of a player he is," said he. "He has had a good year to be frank."
"He has played several excellent innings. This is noise externally. There's no chat like that on Ollie amongst the players," he concluded.
