22-05-2025
World-class Ben Duckett is the reason Zak Crawley will not be dropped
In compiling his first Test hundred on his adopted home ground, Ben Duckett could only have looked more comfortable if he was ambling around in his slippers.
The pitch was flat, the outfield parched, and the Zimbabwe attack desperately modest. In the stands, Duckett was watched by his partner and 10-month-old daughter, and a host of young men milled about in the England opener's nattily named brand of hats, 'Duckett's Buckets'. This was child's play for a man who is surely now the best all-format opener in the world game (at least until Yashasvi Jaiswal breaks into India's ODI team, as seems inevitable).
This was about as gentle as batting in the top order comes in this country, and every Englishman who got the chance rightly helped himself to a hundred. It was worlds away from the challenges of Jasprit Bumrah or Pat Cummins, which lie in wait later this year. But you can only play what is in front of you, and it was Duckett who set the tone and was most commanding.
Ben Duckett hits the first boundary of the Test summer for England 🏴
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) May 22, 2025
Duckett is now among England's most important players, given the issues they have had with the opening position since Andrew Strauss and, at 30, is now a senior player across the formats. It is difficult to see them succeeding against India and Australia this year if he has a quiet time at the top of the order.
It is a measure of his quality that 2024 was actually a slightly wasteful year for Duckett. He averaged 36.4 last summer, and 37.1 across 17 Tests in the year, as opposed to 41.6 overall, and 45.1 in the Bazball era. The two hundreds he did reach, in Rajkot and Multan, were brilliant, but both came in defeats. Deeply frustratingly, he fell five times between 70 and 100, when three figures were begging. There was an insouciance and lack of ruthlessness that cost him.
Here, there were a couple of signs that he means business this year. He left the ball twice to the seamers. In the third over of this match, he did something he did not do at all last summer: pat back an entire maiden, to Richard Ngarava, who later went off with a nasty side injury, making England's task even more simple. He ticked along at almost exactly a run a ball, but barely seemed to be taking a risk.
What a start to the summer for Ben Duckett 🤩Five Test match hundreds and counting for the opener 🏴
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) May 22, 2025
The beauty of Duckett's method is that it remains constant whatever the format. In that respect, he is rather like a pint-sized Marcus Trescothick, another brilliant opener with limited foot movement and an attacking mindset. Trescothick is England's batting coach now, and his influence on Duckett is clear. They are also similar statistically. This is Duckett's 33rd Test; at the same stage Trescothick had 2,315 runs at 40.6. Duckett has 2,410 at 41.5.
England's leaders have done a lot of talking this week. When Brendon McCullum, the head coach, spoke about his players needing to be smarter and more humble with their public pronouncement, he might as well have been speaking directly to Duckett, a prime purveyor of what has come to be known as 'Bazb------s'.
But when Ben Stokes spoke about the squeeze created by the return of Jacob Bethell against India, Duckett was not in the conversation at all. His position is as safe as just about anyone in the side, which is exactly why he should enter the debate. England need to do what suits him, and that is retaining Zak Crawley.
Duckett and Crawley's little and large act is key to the former's success. Zimbabwe were especially generous, but their differences in height and handedness force bowlers to make errors. Here, their stand of 231 was two runs shy of their highest –which was in their very first innings together – and England's highest opening stand at home since 1960.
As a pair, there are now only eight English opening partnerships more prolific than them after they surpassed Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Graham Gooch at Trent Bridge. Michael Atherton and Alec Stewart are only eight runs away, too.
If England were to drop Crawley, Bethell would have to open. He looks capable of that, but, as another short left-hander, England would be robbed of the variety that has served this pair well.
