‘Akash Deep certainly needs a sanction from ICC': Ben Duckett's coach on India pacer's send-off at The Oval

Hindustan Times

15 hours ago

There were many fiesty moments during the India vs England Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Two evenly matched teams gave it their all for five Test matches and sparks often followed. Shubman Gill's exchange with Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett on Day 3 at Lord's was definitely a defining a moment in the Test series, then came England Ben captain Ben Stokes' handshake saga at Old Trafford, which was rejected by India batters Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar. When the fans thought they had seen it all, India pacer Akash Deep wrapped his arms around Ben Duckett after dismissing the England opener in the first innings of the fifth Test at The Oval. England's Ben Duckett and India's Akash Deep(Action Images via Reuters)
While Akash Deep's gesture was nowhere near being aggressive, pundits believed it could have easily been avoided as no batter would like the arm of a bowler who had just dismissed him. Legends like Ricky Ponting, who said he probably would have punched Akash Deep if he were in Duckett's place, lauded the England batter for keeping his calm and handling the situation well.
Days after the Test match went in India's favour in one of the best finishes in recent times, Duckett's childhood coach James Knott said Akash Deep should have been sanctioned by the ICC to prevent this from being repeated by youngsters.
"It was part of a competitive series but certainly needs a sanction to discourage youngsters. At the same time, it doesn't bother me personally," Knott told the TimesofIndia.com. "Often people say that he is maybe too laid back, but Duckett is very competitive when he is out in the middle, as you saw during the recent Test series. Shubman Gill told me he enjoyed the challenge when Duckett was at the crease."
There is a backstory to it. Akash Deep had dismissed Duckett thrice in Test cricket and the left-hander, for the first time, took an upper hand against the Indian quick at The Oval. He reverse-slapped him for a six and charged down the track many times to hit Akash Deep for a four. In between, Duckett also promised Akash Deep that he won't get out to him this time around.
When it looked like, Akash Deep had no answer to Duckett's onslaught, the left-hander attempted another reverse sweep and ended up getting an outside edge to the keeper. The dismissal against the run of play provided India with big relief, and as Duckett was walking back, Akash Deep decided to have a friendly word with his arm around his shoulder.
Interestingly, the two shared a similar moment when Akash Deep came out to bat in India's second innings.
Duckett scored 462 runs at an average of 51.33 in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. His coach said Duckett is a hard man to bowl at as he can access both sides of the wicket.
"He is short, left-handed, scores square of the wicket, sweeps both sides in multiple areas. In that sense, Duckett is not only a hard man to bowl at but very different to a lot of other players out there. Think of Gill, for example, who is a much more orthodox player," stated Knott.
"When I first saw Duckett, he already had the reverse sweep and the switch hit but we added the orthodox sweep. He was always one of the smallest for his age but just hit the ball harder than most of them. The biggest thing he learnt during under-14 or under-15 level cricket was that he doesn't necessarily have the power to clear the boundary. So he had to learn to keep the ball down, which he still does," added the English cricketer's coach.