After the innings of his life, Ben Duckett left it to others to sing his praises and perhaps understandably so. The opener was unbeaten overnight, a rapid-fire 133 runs on the second day of the third Test ending with the promise of more to come.
Instead it was over to Ravichandran Ashwin and Mark Wood to appraise the innings, the former having dominated Duckett back in 2016 – a brutal first taste of Test cricket – only to sit among the spinners taken down on the day. England had responded to India’s 445 all out by racing to 207 for two in just 35 overs.
“Ben Duckett is a phenomenal talent so credit to him, he’s made a wonderful hundred today,” Ashwin said after stumps. “I wanted to clap, but the hardcore competitor in me didn’t allow me to. But I’m very happy for him. A couple of the shots he hit, especially the slog sweeps, were really special.”
Wood was simply “over the moon” to have his feet up after figures of four for 114 in England’s earlier toil. Not that his teammates higher up the order are likely to offer too much respite, their blistering approach unlikely to be throttled back.
“To be that far behind in the game and go out and play like that showed real bravery and skill,” said Wood, glowing about Duckett’s counterattack.
“The way India changed the field and then he’d hit it somewhere else, it was just such a skilful innings against a good attack. He’s a nightmare to bowl at in the nets – we try to get him to leave the ball but he never leaves any.
“It’s been hot, he’s spent all that time in the field [130.5 overs]. He had that capability to then go out there and play with the freedom and clarity of mind, to play those shots and pick the right ball and still be there at the end.
“ Maybe he hasn’t gotten the accolades that he would like with big scores but this was his day and it was amazing to watch, especially as a bowler that’s just bowled plenty of overs.”
While Duckett had enjoyed his best day to date as a Test cricketer, his old rival had locked down immortality. Ashwin, who removed Zak Crawley during a frenetic final session of 176 runs and two wickets, became the ninth bowler to reach 500 Test victims and the second for his country after Anil Kumble.
“I’d be lying if I said 500 doesn’t mean anything. It probably does. At the moment, it hasn’t sunk in,” said the 37-year-old, before explaining how the pandemic changed his perspective. “It gave me a really good reflection of where I stood in life, what I wanted to play for. This game is all I love and I think I had lost some of that love before that and I managed to rediscover it.”
Ashwin was the centre of another talking point on the day, becoming the second Indian player officially warned for running down the pitch during his innings of 37 – a breach of the laws – and incurring the lesser-spotted five-run penalty from the umpires Joel Wilson and Kumar Dharmasena.
He added: “They clearly warned some of our batters yesterday for running on the pitch. I was aware of it, but my poor motor skills didn’t allow me to get off the pitch in time. If the English media and players think it was on purpose, it wasn’t. If that’s how they want to treat it, so be it. I don’t think that pitch is breaking up.”
