Some of England’s greatest Test batters have been lining up to heap praise on Ben Duckett – but the left-hander puts his magical moment at Headingley down to banishing his ego.
Duckett produced the best performance of his career in a stunning chase against India in the first Rothesay Test, smashing 149 at the top of the order to demolish a lofty fifth-day target of 371.
Against an attack led by the best bowler on the planet, Jasprit Bumrah, it was an act of daring and defiance to rank alongside the greatest fourth-innings knocks the game has seen.
And while it was a remarkable new peak for the 30-year-old, it continued a steady trend of impressive performances since his return to the side in December 2022. In 30 appearances since starting his second chapter he has scored 2,511 runs at an average of 47.37 and a strike rate of 88.07.
Having also locked down top spot in the T20 and ODI teams, Duckett is increasingly being held up as England’s most valuable player and a trio of distinguished ex-captains have been raving about him this week.
Michael Vaughan declared “pound for pound I don’t think there’s a better player in the game”, Nasser Hussain touted his credentials as “the best multi-format batsman in the world” and Sir Alastair Cook ranked him as “the one that’s hardest to bowl at”.
Testimonies like that, as well as a new high of eighth in the ICC world rankings, could easily go to the head, but Duckett credits his best work to being older, wiser and less likely to get carried away.
“My mindset personally is a bit different to what it has been over the last couple of years. Potentially there’s a bit of maturity kicking in,” he said.
“It was pretty obvious Jasprit was a big threat of theirs. It was about realising whenever he came on it was going to be a short, sharp burst, trying to see him off and not necessarily playing any big shots.
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“It’s just realising that and taking the ego out of things. Knowing I don’t need to do that. When he’s coming on it’s to get the breakthrough, get me out, and if you get through that period it gets easier.
“Playing more Test matches, learning from mistakes, is number one. Failures are easy to make changes and learn from, rather than just when you do well.”
Duckett was not in the side when Ben Stokes produced his own ‘Miracle of Headingley’ in the 2019 Ashes, or when England began building their reputation as peerless chasers in the first summer under the latter’s captaincy.
But he has more than made up for it now.
“There’s a lot of new guys in this dressing room who haven’t been around for loads of those big chases, but Stokesy feeds the message down,” he said.
“It’s one thing I’ve not done loads of, even in county cricket, so winning a Test and scoring a hundred in the last innings… I’m delighted.”
Duckett started the summer as the only member of England’s top three not under scrutiny, but back-to-back hundreds have made Ollie Pope safe. Zak Crawley followed a century against Zimbabwe with a commendable supporting knock of 65 as the opening pair drained India’s confidence with a stand of 188 on Tuesday.
He appears to have put a torturous pre-Christmas tour of New Zealand behind him and is once again enjoying a productive partnership at the top of the order.
“The leadership of this team don’t really talk about these things – if my place was under pressure they certainly wouldn’t tell me,” he said.
“But I wasn’t playing how I wanted to play in the winter and I feel a lot better about my game now. For me it’s all about how I’m playing and I’m playing a lot better now.”
PA
