England’s opening batter Ben Duckett who has been responsible for giving the Three Lions aggressive starts in the first 3 Tests of the 5-match series in India, came under the radar of Michael Clarke for giving the credit of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s back-to-back double hundreds to England’s very own Bazball style of play. Duckett made these comments after the visitors lost by a 434-run deficit in the 3rd Rajkot Test.
Although Ben Duckett himself played out a 151-ball 153 run knock in the 2nd innings of the Test but he was not able to do the same or get closer to doing so in the 4th innings when England were in desperation for a blistering start. And that was because they needed 557 to win but in turn, the batters faltered against the wrath of the Indian bowling line-up.
What did Duckett say about Jaiswal?
After Jaiswal’s double ton on day 4 and England’s loss on the same day, Ben Duckett issued a statement that Yashasvi Jaiswal is definitely a star in the making and that the visitors should be given some credit for his performance as they apparently inspired the Indians to play with such flair, unlike other teams in the world.
“He looks like a superstar in the making. When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we should take some credit that they’re playing differently than how other people play Test cricket. We saw it a bit in the summer and it’s quite exciting to see other players and other teams are also playing that aggressive style of cricket.” – Duckett told reporters.
His statement would eventually trigger fans on social media and a number of former cricketers as well. Among them was former England captain Michael Vaughan who stated that there have been players in the past who have played like this and also asked a number of England players to keep their thoughts in control.
“Heard of Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist?”- Clarke asks Ben Duckett
While speaking to ESPN Australia’s show named “Around the Wicket”, Michael Clarke threw jabs at Ben Duckett about his Jaiswal comments and asked if he missed watching Australia in the last 20 years. He also asked if the Englishman knows players like Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, and Adam Gilchrist among others, all of whom played in a similar brand of Test cricket which the English media coined as Bazball.
Clarke further bashed Duckett that he shouldn’t consider himself an aggressive batter just because he plays a few ramp shots and reverse sweeps among other unconventional shots and asked him to be a little realistic.
“He must have missed Australia for 20 years. As a youngster, he must not know what Test cricket Australia played. Has he heard of Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist? These guys used to smack it as good as everyone. Because you play a reverse sweep or a switch hit or a ramp shot, that doesn’t mean you are batting aggressively either” Clarke said via ESPN Australia.