Duckett-Ashwin saga follows the same script once again - eight winters later

Eight years ago when Ben Duckett came on his first tour of India, it was Ravichandran Ashwin who gave him a nightmare. In three innings he batted, the Indian spinner had the wood over him in every innings, never letting him settle down. 18 runs was all that he could muster in that series, with Ashwin dismissing him thrice, which jettisoned his Test career for a good six years.

Eight years later, Duckett is a different man. In the last 13 months, he has become a big part of England’s Bazball era - giving opening batting a different meaning and context altogether. Letting a ball go to the wicketkeeper has become almost like a crime for him - it was all on show when he took on the duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj with absolute disdain in the early overs of the Hyderabad Test.

So much so that he was 34 off 36 balls - sweeping Ravindra Jadeja off his feet. 

But little did he know that he was going to be the victim of yet another Ashwin carnage, resurfacing the demons of 2016. Ashwin, a legend in these conditions, has a special liking towards left-handers, dismissing 245 southpaws at an average of 19.3. He feasts on them and when there’s any turn on offer, he becomes triple more effective.

Duckett was no different. Sure, he wanted to bury the demons of 2016 by employing sweep shots more judiciously but the fact stands - when Ashwin gets into the mood, it is never right to ascertain one correct way of playing against him. 

Duckett made the classic error of anticipating the turn and pre-meditating against the Tamil Nadu spinner - even though there was none on offer. On a dry Hyderabad wicket where there are more pebbles than grass, Ashwin thrived in skidding the ball to beat the Northamptonshire opener. Just like that, the 2016 series came flashing back for all English fans once again.

“We will look to play our cricket,” Indian skipper Rohit Sharma had said in the pre-match press conference in Hyderabad. “I am not interested in how the opposition is going to play. I am focused on what we want to do as a team.”

Staying true to that, even when England raced to 53/0 in just 11 overs, India didn’t panic. With the introduction of Ashwin and Jadeja, good combat was still very much on the cards as England found out in the 12th over. More so, Duckett understood the challenges of playing in Indian conditions.

Duckett is still 29 - and has done incredibly well in the last 13 months or so. With his approach, he might still score a lot more runs in the series. But for his own good, he will have to go back to the drawing board and figure out a plan. Just attacking wouldn’t be enough.