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Ben Duckett, The Best All Format Opener Who Systematically Destroyed India At Headingley

Anurag Dasgupta

How Duckett destroyed India [Source: AP Photo] How Duckett destroyed India [Source: AP Photo]

In Test cricket, opening batters are taught to respect the opposition bowlers and play a defensive brand of cricket so that the new ball gets softer. However, the newer generation of openers have a different mindset altogether as they throw away the traditional rulebook of opening batting and have found an unconventional way of dealing with new ball bowlers.

Ben Duckett - the English opener is one such player who has found a method of madness for dealing with opposition bowlers in Test cricket and with his not so great technical skills, the batter has managed to carve a name for himself with an ultra-aggressive approach, never seen before in English cricket.

What made Duckett's innings so special against India?

Before the Test match Vs India at Headingley, Duckett had 5 centuries to his name but the opener needed a career-defining ton to establish himself as one of the best Test opening batters of the modern era. His moment came in the 4th innings in a run chase of 371 against an Indian attack which would have fancied defending the total. However, the Duckett storm blew away the visitors as the opener slammed 149 off 170 and broke several records in the process.

The maverick opener had a 188-run opening stand alongside Zak Crawley, however, the interesting part was Crawley, who had the license to go for the kill, slammed his slowest Test half-century, meanwhile, Duckett reached the landmark in 55 balls, showcasing his importance at the early going against India. 

By the time he departed for a well-compiled 149, England were on the verge of a win and only needed 118 runs for the rest to clear. However, this is where Duckett's importance gets noticed. Once he was dismissed, Ben Stokes and others struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking. Stokes botched half of his 16 reverse sweep shots against Ravindra Jadeja and it showcased how good Duckett was against Jadeja as he accumulated 31 runs from 12 such reverse sweep attempts.

Stokes, the English captain has the unwanted record of getting dismissed by Jadeja, seven times in Tests. Duckett, on the other hand looked unfazed against the Indian spinner and boasts the highest strike-rate amongst the batters to have faced him.

How he systematically destroyed Bumrah and won the match

For India to win the Test match, the Bumrah-Duckett battle was the one that would have decided the outcome. Interestingly, Bumrah's bowling in the second innings could be defined in two halves. Against Duckett, he struggled for lines and lengths and against others, he looked like the real Bumrah.

The English opener faced 49 deliveries from Bumrah and blocked 33 of those. However, out of the 16 deliveries, four of them went past the boundary ropes, something which no other England batter could do against him.

Once the centurion batter departed, Stokes and Joe Root played Bumrah with a cautious mind as they blocked almost everything, taking just two singles. The lack of intent against Bumrah by Stokes and Root was partly because England were already ahead in the game and it was due to Duckett's assault on India's main seamer.

 "Jasprit Bumrah is a world class bowler, negotiating him in the 2nd innings was amazing from our end".

This was Duckett after the game ended and it was fair to say that he executed his plan systematically against the best in the business.

Is Duckett the best all-format player in the world?

There is an argument that the left-handed player is the world's best all-format opening batter at the moment. This is actually a debatable topic one where the fans could go back and forth. However, since his return to the England squad in 2022, only Root has been more productive than him.

Yes, England plays a lot of Test cricket but during the 3 years, the dashing opener averages 47.37, which is by the way more than the average of Steve Smith, who is considered the best Test batter of this generation and rightly so. As an opener, he now averages 44.98, which is more than Alastair Cook (44.86), arguably England's best opener in the last two decades.

His exploits is not only limited to Test cricket but the opener has done quite well in white ball cricket as well. In 25 ODI matches, the England opener has racked up 1176 runs and has an average of almost 50. In T20Is, Duckett has only played 20 matches but the strike rate of 153.64 makes him a dangerous commodity. The only one's who come close to Duckett is Australia's Travis Head, but even the Aussie is a two-format opener.

In the future, there can be a case for Yashasvi Jaiswal, who already has cemented his Test place and will be a guaranteed starter in white-ball cricket but let us not look at that far. At the moment, Duckett is far ahead in comparison to others and is on the path to becoming one of the greats of the game.