Ben Duckett banished his ego before boosting batting brilliance for England
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.
Player of the Match 🍾
❤️ @BenDuckett1 pic.twitter.com/Xrse4S2gKN
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 25, 2025
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.
'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.'
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North Wales Chronicle
2 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Ben Duckett banished his ego before boosting batting brilliance for England
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. Player of the Match 🍾 ❤️ @BenDuckett1 — England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 25, 2025 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. '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.'
South Wales Guardian
2 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Ben Duckett banished his ego before boosting batting brilliance for England
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. Player of the Match 🍾 ❤️ @BenDuckett1 — England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 25, 2025 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. '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.'
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Ben Stokes and his team save us from banality of TikTok and YouTube
It's said that Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum are saving Test cricket. I disagree. These two heroes are saving civilisation. They're saving it from short-form cricket, short-form sport, short attention spans, instant gratification, TikTok, YouTube shorts, dopamine-optimised trivia, fast food that fills you up in ten seconds but leaves you unsatisfied, overly salinated and feeling slightly ill. I'm regularly told that sport extending over five hours, let alone five days — and where you might not even get a winner — is out of kilter with the spirit of our times. People don't want sport where the two teams stop for lunch and little happens for minutes at a time. But periods of boredom are the point of Test cricket, along with the patience required to stick with it, to soak it up and to realise that — not unlike reading Tolstoy or listening to Wagner — that those lulls conspire to create a climax unreachable in shorter, more superficial forms of sport or, for that matter, culture. What a contest this was (with Headingley, once again, the crucible for England's heroics) from the brave decision to put India into bat, to that moment on day two when India were 430 for three and Stokes was (according to some) looking decidedly foolish, to the missed catches, Ben Duckett's reverse-sweeping, Jasprit Bumrah at times looking unplayable, Ollie Pope's century, Zak Crawley's determination, and Rishabh Pant's two hundreds. Across all of this, the complexion of the match shifted imperceptibly from hour to hour, before, on that final day, England dared to believe not that they could win but that they absolutely would. I wish I could bottle the psychology of this England side and transfer it into hearts and minds up and down the nation. It's not so much self-belief as sheer derring-do. They are not arrogant. They are not conceited. I doubt they'd describe themselves as God's gift to cricket or anything else. It's more that they see Test cricket as an adventure, a thing to explore with heart and courage, to perhaps risk failure but give it everything along the way. Against India in Rajkot last year, Duckett was asked what kind of target England could realistically chase down and he replied: 'The more the better.' Wonderful. We're in the middle of a political debate about the rising cost of welfare, about the thousands of new people every week joining the ranks of those claiming benefits. How I wish for a sea change in attitudes whereby people stop talking about all the things they can't do, daren't do, are unable to do, and instead ponder the things they can. Left-wingers will doubtless say it's glib, perhaps even insulting, to ask people to take a leaf out the book of Stokes, McCullum, et al. I disagree. Sure, life is about luck, opportunity and the rest but it's also a state of mind (or, as Talk Talk put it in their finest song, Life's What You Make It). How thrilling to see England's body language on the second day, when doubters were writing them off, still believing they could win. As Stokes put it, thrillingly: 'Every session, we turned up with the attitude that we could blow this match apart.' Put this on billboards across every school in the nation. This is why I love this form of the sport. I love the tempo, the brilliant writing in the papers, the wonderful vicariousness of going home from work on the Tube and then catching up with the score when you regain a signal. I also hugely miss the days when I'd watch with my late father on the telly in the morning and then jump in the car for a day out for a picnic in Dinton Pastures and he'd bring along the radio so we could keep track of Test Match Special. 'What's the score?', a passer-by would ask. 'Boycott's just gone,' we'd reply or 'Gower's on fifty'. These weren't just conversations; they were the gossamer threads connecting strangers to that abstraction we call society. Don't get me wrong. I should perhaps say that I like the short-form stuff too. I get a Maccy D's from time to time (breakfast muffin with a hash brown). I scroll through TikTok every now and again. T20 can be gripping (one thinks of the 2016 World Cup final between England and West Indies — we may not have won, but the contest was unforgettable). Conan Doyle's short stories are a treat to read and In My Life by The Beatles is only two minutes, 27 seconds long but packs in more beauty and truth than a hundred longer, more cloying pieces of music. I'd never fetishise length or duration for its own sake. But what should worry us is when intricate, complex institutions like Test cricket start to disappear altogether, or when they become like besieged islands in a sea of ephemera. 'O gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience,' wrote Shakespeare in act three, scene four of Hamlet. They are words that will resonate with anyone who stuck with this magnificent contest across five enthralling days. Roll on Edgbaston.
