Ben There Done That

Since the winter of 2022, Duckett has emerged as one of the best openers in Test cricket. Behind the scenes, the southpaw stripped his game before piecing it together again. Swaroop Swaminathan spoke to Ant Botha, skills coach at Nottinghamshire, to understand how he did it.

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In the larger scheme of things, this may be a footnote but it's representative of how Duckett has gone from one end of the batting spectrum to another. In 2016, he was a walking wicket against India. Now? He's the opener the Indian bowlers hate bowling against.

Since the start of 2024, Duckett is the leading run-scorer against India with 554 runs and averages 46.16 with two 100s (no other player has scored over 100).

But how did the 30-year-old manage to do this?

Here's Ant Botha, who knows Duckett fairly well. At the outset, Botha, the current skills coach at Nottinghamshire, makes one thing clear about Duckett. "He has always had unbelievable self-belief systems," the South African tells me daily over phone. "He was always talented, had great hand-eye co-ordination and was stubborn. That's always been one of his great strengths."

This is what prompted the England management to fast-track Duckett into the national side in 2016. After that series in India, though, a trial by spin seemingly put a halt to his fledgling career. After a couple of years, he moved to Notts where Botha was already in place with Peter Moores, the former England head coach.

Gradually, Duckett, who had won the Professional Cricketers' Association's Player of the Year and the Young Player of the Year in 2016, began to make up for lost time. It included lots of video analysis, sweating it out in indoor nets and constantly working on his movement, pre-delivery.