Ben Duckett committed to his indiscriminately positive nature in Rajkot to produce one of the all-time great Bazball innings, writes Yas Rana.
The classical Test opener is the most English of positions. There is a clear lineage dating back 50 years where leading English openers overlap with another; from Cook to Strauss to Trescothick, to Stewart and Atherton, to Gooch, to Boycott. There are then nine years between Boycott’s first Test and Hutton’s last, before which you can link Hutton to Sutcliffe who in turn overlapped with Hobbs. And now you’re in 1908. Those nine openers, with a bit of a fudge, basically take you through 110 years of English Test history. Whatever the state of English cricket – and historically, England have rarely been a world-leading side – they have generally boasted at least one opening batter of repute.
This is also the role that best suits Britain’s historically conservative attitude to how the game is played. A technique derived from the MCC trainer’s manual that involves a kind of ascetic resistance to temptations outside the stump. Perhaps more than any other role, you know what role a typical English test initiator plays.
The Buzzball era has transformed the careers of England’s current top three. Zac Crawley has shown a stable batting ability that even Brendon McCullum cannot believe he has achieved in just two years, and Ollie Pope has become a mainstay in the dressing room, and was traded as No. 3. There’s also Ben Duckett, who gave it to me. Stokes and McCullum played in Division Two of the County Championship when they took over and are currently averaging over 50 runs as a Test opener, higher than any of England’s openers with over 1,000 Test runs. Only Amis, Hutton, Sutcliffe and Hobbs have average scores. Under Stokes’ leadership, since being sacked in 2022, that average has risen to his 55 combined with a shocking strike rate of 91.
– 133* (118)
– 21 fours
– 2 sixes
– 112.71 strike rateGreat test third century from Rajkot’s Ben Duckett 💯
96 of the 133 runs so far have been inside the perimeter 😳 #INDvENG < a href =" https://t.co/eJO11XRcuA"> pic.twitter.com/eJO11XRcuA
– Wisden (@WisdenCricket) 16. February 2024
It’s a remarkable run, achieved in a way that suits Duckett’s instincts, but is completely at odds with almost every previous role holder, let alone his opening partner. Even Marcus Trescotdic, England’s most aggressive opening batsman of the modern era, had a batting average of 54 before the buzz ball.
Duckett’s success is generally not a victory for Coach’s Handbook fans. And his first 15 balls today were a small victory for purists who say he can’t get away with leaving a ball as a Test opener. His reluctance to release the ball voluntarily was well-known and evident, and attempts to go wide showed minimal success. It was a minor miracle that he survived the fifth round.
On the 16th delivery, Duckett was given a bit more space by Jasprit Bumrah and steered the ball towards the deep third boundary for the fourth time. He walked away and didn’t look back. Next he Kuldeep on 11 balls he caught Yadav and Mohammed his Siraj and further he produced six boundaries.
He toyed with Kuldeep’s boundary rider, maneuvering it almost like a puppeteer, causing different repetitions of the swing shot depending on the exact location of the leg field. He was equally aggressive against Siraj, and by the time his nemesis R. Ashwin was introduced in the 12th over, Duckett had already scored his first fifty on Indian soil, taking his total to 77. was. Twice in the four innings of this series, Ashwin dismissed Duckett as England’s opener was fielding. There were signs of restraint again and he treated Ashwin’s first over with a respect he had never shown his off-spinner teammates before.
It was at the age of 69 that Duckett fired furiously at Ashwin, delivering four brutal blows to the side of his leg and banishing the ghost of 2016. For the first time in the series, Duckett treated Ashwin like the rest of the Indian attack.
It wasn’t until the next round that the fun really started. Six of us gave it a long sweep, then four of us pulled it, and three of us tickled the sides of its legs. 13 is his 3rd delivery and he goes right through the 80s.
At the end of the game, Duckett was still undefeated at 133 points. This is his third and most important Test hundred for him. His final analysis of the day is an extraordinary read. This is not a player targeting a perceived weak link in an attack. When he sings, everyone gathers in his line of fire. The slowest strike rate Duckett has recorded against a single bowler is the 93 he currently has against Siraj.
Such an epoch-making event was about to happen. For a player who shoots the ball so indiscriminately outside the off-stump, he’s certainly adept at handling the new ball and has just four-figure scores to his name since returning to the team. . He currently has seven consecutive games with 20 or more hits, and that’s against two of the world’s best attackers in Australia and India.
At the heart of his success is his extraordinary ability for a British player, especially his counterspin ability. He can sweep the spinners out of optimal length and force the captain to choose the catcher’s fielder. When the spinners lose their length, Duckett is great at using his height to pull and cut deliveries that don’t really fall short at all. Dinesh Karthik said in his commentary that Duckett has to be the player the Indian attack team hates the most when it comes to bowling, and it’s easy to see why.
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Philosophically too, there is an almost perfect connection between his own ideology and that of the British leader. When I interviewed Duckett, who successfully re-entered the England squad twice in consecutive winters, in early 2022 and early 2023, he said that after watching the games of Stokes and Bairstow, he encouraged him to accept and play his own game. It became clear what impact it had. And he urges him to return to his own natural offensive principles.
“Obviously, I was able to play as well as I used to this summer, and that’s because I was watching the test squad,” Duckett said. “I didn’t change the way I played because I wanted to be nominated. I think in red-ball cricket (which I was playing) there was a time when you ‘should’ have played the game at the top. “You have to place the ball well and hit it for a long time.” In fact, when I saw them, I knew in my head that this is how I have to play. If I score, it’s not because I did it, it’s because I was aggressive.
“And I think Test cricket was probably portrayed in a way that taught you how to play.” I think that’s why it’s so interesting. I remember many times in my career when I was a green seamer and faced a bowler going 114 miles per hour and just kept stirring and scoring 20 out of 50. If this were next summer, we’d probably blow them up on the short side or whatever. If you start with this mindset, I think there is no upper limit.
“I think England have shown how far they can lead the game in white-ball cricket. I don’t think just because the ball is a different color doesn’t mean they can’t do the same thing in red-ball cricket.” Sometimes you have to respect the game, you have to respect the conditions, you have to respect good bowling, but it’s amazing what you can achieve if you have the will to actually go out there and be positive. ”
Duckett values this positivity and has the skills to back it up. As he has already hinted, it is amazing what a player who spent most of his 20s away from the England squad can do with this positive attitude. And in Rajkot, in his own way, he achieved an innings that rivaled any ever recorded by an England opener on Indian soil.
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