“It’s probably the first day in the last month I’ve not thought about cricket at all,” says Ben Duckett down the end of the phone line, even if, by answering this call from a cricket journalist, the spell is instantly broken.
Duckett has had a fair old distraction over the past week, this maelstrom of an Ashes series coinciding with an awkwardly timed house move. After England’s victory in Leeds last Sunday, which brought the scoreline back to 2-1, both sets of players have taken a break before next week’s crunch fourth Test at Old Trafford, Duckett and his girlfriend, Paige, spending much of it ushering plumbers, electricians, gardeners and Sky engineers into their new home.
But then Duckett is a cricketer who likes to stay busy. In terms of openers with more than 1,000 Test runs, no player in history – not even the great Virender Sehwag – can top his strike-rate of 87.16. The left-hander doesn’t leave the ball outside off stump too often, preferring the feel of willow on leather, and when it comes to the short stuff, well, he would sooner take it on than bob and weave.
This certainly played out in the first two Tests, with scores of 12 and 19 at Edgbaston, both times caught chasing wide ones, and 98 and 83 at Lord’s, both ending on the pull. But the 28-year-old is extremely comfortable with all this; happy to play to his own quick-scoring strengths at the top of the order, rather than other people’s more traditional perceptions of what the role should entail.
“There’s two sides to this,” replies Duckett when asked if this series has been like no other in a Test career resurrected in Pakistan last winter. “It’s been a whirlwind. You realise how massive it is from the outside noise, friends who message every day, some you’ve not heard from for years. But on the flipside, the environment right now, it genuinely feels like another game. We all want to win but the talk is not about the result.”
Duckett is fully signed up to the Bazball approach and loves the bucket hats that have come to denote England’s club cricket vibe. “They’ve blown up!” he says. “And it’s perfect that it rhymes with my surname. I was saying to Paige: ‘Maybe this is a good time to bring out my own range.’ I’ve actually spoken to my agent about it.”
It’s not entirely clear if this is a joke but Duckett is certainly serious about the discourse around the team’s aggression needing some adjustment. This was summed up at Lord’s when, out two short of his century, he bridled on air when Jonathan Agnew, BBC cricket correspondent, asked if he would be forever reliving the pull shot that caused his demise as one of three batters to fall in similar fashion.
“I couldn’t believe the interview with Aggers, how he couldn’t understand it,” says Duckett. “The only reason I got to 98 was the pull shot – if I’d put it away I’d have got 20. I’m not happy with 98, even sitting here now, I would have loved two hundreds in the game. But the way I put this, which people don’t understand, when you have 6ft 5in lads bowling bumpers for a session, it’s no different to a green seamer and you nicking off twice. It is going to happen. And 180 runs in the match; I’d say I’ve won that battle.
“I’ll also add, I don’t get under the ball or sway – Duckett doesn’t duck it, you might say – so to try something in that moment that I’ve never done before wouldn’t bring me success. I’d sooner get out trying to be aggressive than just being a sitting duck. Caught playing a ball on fifth stump? That happens, too, but it’s my strength as well, bowlers can be afraid to hang it out there because on my day I will hurt them.”
This is, Duckett adds, the best attack he has ever faced; the first time he has had to deal consistently with a barrage of pace and a far cry from the fare in county cricket. But as an Ashes newbie, living out a childhood dream first spawned during the famous 2005 series, it is not quite as hostile in the middle as he might have expected either, with Australia very much playing in the image of their squeaky-clean captain.
“My view on the Australian team is that they’re a very, very good team,” he says, before a slight pause and a matter-of-fact follow-up. “But they’re a bunch of nice guys. Pat Cummins seems like one of the nicest blokes in cricket. If I bowled 90mph like him I’d give the batter a lot more chat. But it doesn’t feel like they’re trying to intimidate anyone out there, they’re just focusing on their skills. It’s nice.”
Franchise cricket is Duckett’s diagnosis here, noting that “even if I had an opinion on one of their players, thinking he’s no good or not a good bloke, someone in our team has probably played with them”.
That said, the series did shift by way of tone after the febrile response to the stumping of Jonny Bairstow by Alex Carey at Lord’s and the introduction of Mark Wood’s pace at Headingley. “The home crowd is a big thing for us,” says Duckett. “When Carey came out to bat last week, normally as a fielding side you’d go for the batter a little bit, make them feel uncomfortable. But we didn’t have to say a word because the crowd were going so hard. I know for a fact it must have affected him because he didn’t seem his normal self.
“And I also know for a fact Australia will not want Woody to play these last two games. It’s so weird; how does he bowl so fast? He’s not a big bloke, it’s just arm-speed, I guess. He’s so skiddy and always at you, so I’m very happy he’s on my team. And it’s not just with the ball, the way he took them on with the bat was gamechanging.”
After Headingley, Duckett told the dressing room it didn’t feel like they were batting to save the Ashes, such was the belief. He also shared a beer with Zak Crawley, the pair’s little-and-large opening partnership – Duckett 5ft 7in, Crawley 6ft 5in – having set up the final day when they shaved off 27 runs in just five overs the night before. The 91 they put on together at Lord’s is their best this series but an average of 47 for the first wicket in 18 innings together is, among pairs with 500-plus runs, England’s best for 10 years.
“I genuinely don’t even know if me being a tiny left-hander was a factor in being picked,” says Duckett. “But he [Crawley] is genuinely one of my favourite partners. We’re both on the same wavelength, both looking to get the team off to a flier. And Australia have had sweepers out and it’s nice, you can always rotate the strike, knowing the board is ticking over. In that respect I think the Australians have got it wrong, they’re not building pressure.
“Zak is a very witty guy, and he plays more attractive shots than me. We haven’t properly fired yet this series but I said over a couple of beers: ‘Me and you, let’s do a session or longer, because if we do, we will put the team in such a good position.’”
This confidence wasn’t always there, Duckett admitting he felt the pressure during his first crack at Test cricket in late 2016. But, inspired by England’s approach last summer, he stopped trying to be a classical top-order player and began incorporating the best of his white-ball game into his first‑class cricket at Nottinghamshire. Now nine Tests into this second attempt, and averaging 56 in this time, there is no going back.
“Two years ago, some of the shots I play would have been unacceptable,” he says. “It’s amazing what you can do when you take away the fear of failure. That’s the biggest thing, I’m not trying to make people think I’m England’s best ever opener, I’ll stick to what I do and will have a hell of a better chance than if I try to be something I’m not. There’s no reason I can’t keep doing this for the next however many years.”
Ashes newcomer he may be but Duckett, embodying the spirit of the bucket hat, sounds very much at home these days.
