RAJKOT: The last time Ben Duckett toured India, back in Nov 2016, he was easy meat for R Ashwin, succumbing to the ace off-spinner for scores of 13, 5 and 0. Few would have imagined that seven years and a bit later, Duckett would steal the honours from Ashwin on a day when the veteran bowler touched the landmark of 500 Test wickets.
Bludgeoning an 88 ball century, the fastest by an England batsman against India in Test cricket and the third fastest on Indian soil in this format the 29 year old Duckett has been ‘reborn’ as a flamboyant opener, having been a decent wicketkeeper in his under-19 days.
He is now a key flag-bearer of England’s aggressive, entertaining ‘Bazball’ approach and helped his side roar back against a rattled India on Friday. Lighting up the second half of Day Two with his breath-taking strokeplay, which involved regal drives on the off-side, cuts, pulls, sweeps and reverse sweeps, the left-hander destroyed India’s bowling while notching up his third Test hundred.
With Duckett unleashing his fireworks from the start he smashed his fifty off just 39 balls England, after sweating it out to restrict India to 445, raced away to 207/2 in 35 overs, plundering 176 runs in just 29 overs in the final session.
India must find a way to solve ‘Bazball’ and bounce back with quick wickets on Day 3, but that looks a bit difficult as the pitch still looks good to bat on.
Interestingly, England started at five for no loss after they were awarded five penalty runs following a warning to Ashwin from the umpires for running onto the danger area on the wicket.
Duckett added 89 in just 79 balls for the opening wicket with a rather sedate Zak Crawley before India, much to their relief, got a much-needed breakthrough when Ashwin got Crawley top-edging a sweep to Rajat Patidar at short fine leg for his 500th Test wicket.
Duckett and Ollie Pope (39; 55b, 5x4, 1x6) then put on 93 in just 102 balls, with the partnership ending when Mohammed Siraj had Pope leg-before with one that came in. It was a dismissal well planned by Siraj — a few bouncers followed by a ball slightly fuller in length and looked to be hitting the top of offstump. After umpire Joel Wilson ruled it not out, India did well to take the DRS.
Duckett’s relentless assault, which saw him peppering the off-side with tremendous precision, began in the third over of the England innings. He punched Jasprit Bumrah between cover and backward point and then cut and drove the quick for two more fours in the fifth over. With the Nottinghamshire man in a murderous mood, the bowler whose figures were damaged the most was Kuldeep Yadav, who went for 42 in six overs without coming close to taking a wicket. Introduced in the seventh over, Kuldeep was swept off consecutive balls by Duckett before reverse-sweeping him for four in the next over.
Could left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who was axed at Kuldeep’s expense for this Test, have been a better option, considering he at least keeps things tight at one end? Worryingly for India, Ravindra Jadeja has conceded 33 in four overs so far without taking a wicket.
Earlier, India, resuming at 325/5, stretched their innings for a fair bit, even though they lost ]Jadeja (112, caught and bowled by Joe Root) early. Dhruv Jurel (46; 104b, 2x4, 3x6) was the second Indian debutant to impress, showing admirable patience while putting together a 77-run stand in 175 balls for the eighth wicket with Ashwin.
