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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Leader Live
2 hours ago
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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
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Ben Duckett: from impetuous talent to world-class opener
Ben Duckett's man-of-the-match performance in England's record-breaking victory at Headingley marked another significant step in his evolution into one of the best opening batsmen in the world. Duckett's rise has not been without detours. Initially thrust into Test cricket in 2016 and quickly dropped, his early career was marked by promise and exuberance without permanence or consistency. But since returning to the side under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, he has become emblematic of the new England, initially doing exactly what they wanted — being aggressive and entertaining —but now, as Bazball moves into its next 'smarter' stage, evolving with it. The 30-year-old left-hander remains aggressive, but the impetuosity has been replaced by a more refined sense of opportunity. The result is Duckett's emergence as one of the most consistent and adaptable openers in world cricket — across all formats. 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His reverse-sweeping against the spin of Ravindra Jadeja was a masterclass, scoring 31 runs with 12 reverse-sweeps despite the Indian spinner turning it wildly out of the rough. It was so impressive that his captain, who had been struggling to connect with his own reverse-sweeps, asked for Duckett's advice on the final afternoon. 'I actually spoke to him when we came off for that rain break,' Stokes said. 'He's one of the best in the world at reverse-sweeps, sweeps. He is a fantastic player of spin, particularly on tricky surfaces, so I had little word with him about what he thought I could look at doing a bit better to give myself a better chance against Jadeja.' Duckett's performances at Headingley have resulted in him leaping up five spots in the ICC Test batting rankings to eighth, while he has also quietly solved one of England's long-standing problems: the search for a stable, Test opening pair alongside Zak Crawley. At Headingley, their 188-run second-innings stand was vital in setting up the run chase of a daunting 371. The pair complement each other very well: tall/short, left-hand/right-hand which poses all sorts of issues to bowlers with their line and lengths. Crawley had the best view in the house for most of Duckett's innings on the final day and hailed it as an 'unbelievable knock'. 'People might not realise how good that knock was with the rough there for Jadeja and doing a bit with the new ball, up and down,' Crawley said. 'It was incredible, so I was just trying to get him on strike. We knew it was a fast-scoring ground, we knew we could always catch up, so we started off quite slowly and just wanted to see what the pitch was doing. 'We tried to be quite watchful and accelerate after, although Ducky did more of the accelerating than me.' Perhaps most striking is Duckett's mental shift. Once burdened by the scrutiny of the Test arena, he now plays with an uncluttered mind encouraged by his captain and coach to keep it simple. Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. He may have been seen as something of a bold selection in 2022 but now Duckett is no longer a peripheral but unrealised talent. He is undeniably becoming England's most reliable opener — and one of the few in world cricket excelling across formats. His game is still rooted in instinct, but now it is layered with intelligence and an added maturity that he admits has come with age, experience and parenthood. 'It comes from playing more Test matches and learning from mistakes,' he said, 'but also I am a dad now and I've definitely realised there is more to life.'
