England Test opener Ben Duckett revealed how red-ball coach Brendon McCullum’s words spurred him to become the best version of himself as a batter in the longer format, instead of being like traditional players.
“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 said he is never satisfied with himself and 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.”
Ever since McCullum took over as England’s Test head coach, the side has lost just one series: 4-1 in India earlier this year. Duckett caused a stir during third Test at Rajkot by suggesting Bazball style of play was an inspiration behind Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s aggressive streak of runs.
“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.
The challenge for Duckett now in England’s upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka is to play the role of senior opener with Zak Crawley out due to a broken finger and Dan Lawrence to fill in the gap left by the latter’s absence.
‘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 signed off by saying people are always looking for an avenue to criticise the England Test team, despite the Bazball style giving them a lot of success. “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.”
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