“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.
