(AFP Photo)
England Test opener Ben Duckett disclosed how Brendon McCullum, the red-ball coach, inspired him to evolve into the best version of himself as a batter in the longer format, encouraging him to break away from conventional playing styles.
“It was Baz (McCullum) who said: ‘Why do you have to go and bat like these previous openers? Why can’t you be the best version of yourself?’ That’s what I am. It has its downfalls: I nick off quite a lot. But I’ve also scored a lot of runs in that area. If I start to leave more balls, I bet you I’d still nick off and score a lot less runs,” said Duckett to Daily Mail.
The left-handed opener also mentioned that he is always striving for more and never feels fully content with his performances. “If you’d have offered me in 2022 the two years I’ve had, I’d have snapped your hand off. But I’m the kind of guy who’s never satisfied. I want the next two years to be even better. My batting has felt like it has gone to a different level, which I can’t really put my finger on.”
Since Brendon McCullum became England’s Test head coach, the team has only lost one series, which was a 4-1 defeat in India earlier this year. During the third Test in Rajkot, Duckett made headlines by suggesting that the Bazball style of play inspired Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s aggressive run of form.
“It was actually me paying him a nice compliment. I’m pretty sure I said he was a world-class player, but no one spoke about that. Would I have said what I did during the fifth Test? No, because he played like that throughout the whole series and he was incredible,” added Duckett.
With Zak Crawley sidelined due to a broken finger and Dan Lawrence stepping in to cover his absence, Ben Duckett now faces the challenge of taking on the role of senior opener for England in their upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka.
‘We’ve only lost one match as a pair. Annoyingly it was against Harry Brook and Zak, who both play off scratch. If I could open with anyone in the world, it would be Zak. The partnership we’ve evolved together is something I really will miss this series. But it’ll be good fun opening with Lozza. Hopefully he can get the best out of me like he does on the golf course.”
Duckett concluded by noting that, despite the success the Bazball style has brought to the England Test team, there are always people eager to find reasons to criticize them.“In the world we live in, some people can never be happy, and can never make positive comments. They’re always looking to dig and criticise the way anyone plays.”
“The way we play our cricket, with a smile on our faces, gets perceived that we don’t care as much. But I can tell you that every single person who walks out on that field is desperate to win. We just want to do it in a slightly more entertaining way. I think we have done that.”
“I remember playing in the Hundred last year straightaway after the Ashes, and so many kids coming up to me saying they’d watched the Ashes and loved how the team was playing. That’s exactly why we do it.”
