Ben Duckett says that the thought of playing in his first Ashes gives him “shivers.” This is 18 years after he watched Australia lose the urn to England in an epic series and England win it back.
When Ben Duckett was ten years old, in the summer of 2005, he was already addicted to the game. He thinks that many kids his age got into cricket after seeing England beat Australia 2-1 during the summer school break.
Duckett said, “I watched that show along with half the country.” “If I’d been sitting on the couch with my dad and had a chance of playing an Ashes match, however many years later, it gives me chills. It doesn’t feel real right now.”
“What’s more exciting is that I think we have a very good chance of beating Australia here, no matter who that team is, and I think a lot of people around the country agree with me. There will be a lot of people watching, and if I get the job, it will be very exciting.
“I started playing when I was four, but when I think back on that series, I think, ‘Wow, that was amazing.’ Maybe some other cricketers didn’t play much before 2005, like Joe Clarke.
“I was lucky enough to go to Millfield Prep, a fee-paying private school, and play cricket there from a young age. For people who weren’t as lucky, that was the series for people around my age that was a real turning point and really got them into the game.”
Duckett made the Test team again over the winter, six years after his first taste of international cricket in Bangladesh and India. He scored 508 runs in five Tests, including a hundred and four half-centuries, during England’s tours to Pakistan and New Zealand.
Unless he gets hurt or loses his form, it looks like he will open the batting for England all summer. His first Test match on home soil will be on June 1 against Ireland at Lord’s.
He is likely to start the season at No. 3 in the County Championship, which is where he has batted for Nottinghamshire for the past few years. Haseeb Hameed and Ben Slater are likely to continue their partnership at the top of the order.
Peter Moores, the head coach of Notts, told ESPNcricinfo on Wednesday that he would wait until the end of the preseason to make a final decision. Duckett, on the other hand, doesn’t care too much either way.
“I have left it open with Pete [Moores] and Mull [captain Steven Mullaney] here,” he said. “I don’t want to change things too much for people; I don’t want to be that guy.”
“But they’ve said they want me to be ready to play for England, so it kind of works both ways. If I were batting No. 5 for Notts, the conversation would be different, but batting No. 3 and the opening are pretty similar.
I think No. 3 is harder because the bowlers are tight when you get there. Sometimes you get a few freebies when you open, so if I had to choose, I’d probably open.
During the winter of 2022–2023, Duckett was one of the busiest players for England. During that time, only Harry Brook (41) played more days of international cricket than Duckett (35). Neither man has a central contract, though.
Ben Duckett joked that his situation is worse than Brook’s. “I think he’s happy with his £1.2m in the IPL,” he said with a laugh, but he remained calm about the possibility of getting on the central contract list for the next 12 months.
“Twelve months ago, if you had told me I was going to play for England in all three formats, I wouldn’t have cared about central contracts. I just wanted to play.
“I guess I still have a chance to play for England, and if I’m still there on October 1, I’ll get the benefits of that. I try to take things one day at a time.
“I’ve really enjoyed playing for England, especially in the Test team, and I definitely want to be a part of it in the coming years. Those kinds of things are up to me and no one else.
“It’s clear that I haven’t done very well if I don’t get a central contract. Just play my game and have fun, and keep your fingers crossed that you stay in the squad.”
India
