Follow UsIf there's one player who breathes the ethos of Bazball, it has to be Ben Duckett. Since his return to the England Test side in December 2022, he has been among the best batters in the world.
Since then, no opening batter has more runs and more centuries in Tests than Duckett. His abrasive stroke-making and ability to take calculated risks are some of the standout features of his batting. Every ball Duckett faces, he faces to score. He has left alone just 3.5% of the deliveries in his 34-match Test career, which for an opener is staggering.
Moreover, he has edged just 10% of his deliveries and 6% of the times, he has been beaten, which are not all that bad for someone who plays high-risk cricket.
There are not many times that you can bog Duckett down, but in the fourth innings of the Headingley Test against India, Duckett took his time early on. He had to bide his time early on, scoring just 25 balls in his first 50 balls, and from there he slowly upped his pace, and never looked back since.
He reverse-swept, drove, and pulled with utmost ease, and his 149 runs came at a strike rate of close to 91. India did well to keep him quiet as the pacers, bowled largely at the good length (6-8m), off which he scored at under 60. However, he more than made up for it as he toyed with anything that was in his arc to up the ante. Not to forget, he helped himself to a vital 94-ball 62 in the first innings as well.
When you are chasing 371, you need someone like Duckett, who is so confident with his game that he is willing to take the risks. You cannot chase such a massive total if you are not willing to take risks. You need someone like Zak Crawley, as well, who can curb his natural attacking instincts, and dig it out and curtail the temptation of matching your partner shot for shot.
However, what we saw was someone willing to adapt for his team and his partner, so much so that he registered his slowest Test fifty.
Duckett did not let his partner's efforts go in vain. He not only played a massive role in a record-breaking 188-run stand for the first wicket, but also kicked on and further put England in a commanding position.
It is not just in Tests that Duckett has flourished. In One-Day Internationals (ODI), he has scored over 1,000 runs at 50.14 in 22 matches since he returned to the setup in 2023 and when it comes to the T20 Internationals (T20I), he has struck at over 154 and average of 30.47 (since 2022), which are once again numbers every player aspires to have.
Duckett, who debuted for England in 2016, is currently in the middle of a purple patch and his team are bearing the benefits of it. With the T20 World Cup next year and the ODI World Cup to follow in 2027, there is little doubt that the 30-year-old is potentially among the first names in the squad.
As far as his Test career is concerned, it could be dangerous to think that he is just getting started. Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes could be the brains behind this aggressive brand of cricket, but Duckett is one of the main reasons it is a successful phase.