Ben Duckett notches up fastest Test fifty by an England opener

Ben Duckett is all things Bazball. If anything, he goes overboard with it sometimes. He received a fair bit of flak when he credited England’s aggressive batting style for Yashasvi Jaiswal’s blistering form during their tour of India earlier this year. Even Nasser Hussain, the former England skipper and currently a renowned broadcaster, disagreed with Duckett. 

But then there is the positive side to Duckett’s commitment towards England’s aggression, as seen for the umpteenth time since his return after two years, this time in the second Test against West Indies at Trent Bridge. 

Asked to bat first, England lost Zak Crawley in the first over. However, in the next over itself, Duckett overcame any possibility of pressure with four fours in a row to begin his innings. Jayden Seales bowled a poor follow-up over and Duckett lashed onto every single opportunity, dismissing him twice through the covers, once into the on-side and once through point, his favorite region. 

From 0/1 in 0.3 overs, England raced to 50/1 in 4.2 overs, with Duckett bringing the boundary to reach the 50-run mark. The 50-run stand between Duckett and Ollie Pope came off only 23 balls, the fastest in Test cricket since 2011. Duckett scored 33 off these from only 14 balls, striking seven boundaries. 

It often happens in T20 cricket: if the new batter hits a handful of boundaries right after a wicket, it absorbs all the pressure. Duckett did that in Test cricket. And West Indies, having opted to bowl first and picked a wicket in the first over, were now searching for answers. The first of those questions must have been why they opted to bowl first under the Nottingham sun. 

By the 10th over, Duckett had brought up his fifty off 32 balls, the quickest by an England opener. He broke the joint-record held by himself and his opening partner, Crawley.

Duckett had 11 fours in it, constituting nearly 85% of his runs in boundaries. The square and the cover drive, two of his favorite stokes, had brought him 31 of these runs as West Indies were simply off the radar. 

Before this, the left-hander had only one 50-plus score in over 10 Test matches — 153 in a losing cause in Rajkot. But there were no doubts about his place, enunciating the management’s trust in their players in their aggressive style of batsmanship, which Duckett has embraced with both arms.

When it looked like the southpaw would become only the seventh batter to score a hundred before lunch on Day 1 of a Test match, Shamar Joseph got the better of him with a string of dot balls. However, Duckett had done the damage by then, scoring 71 from 59 deliveries. England were 105/2 in 19 overs when he walked back. 

With the sun scorching at Trent Bridge, he blunted the new ball when it was supposed to do most of the damage. 

Quite interestingly, the 29-year-old almost opted out of this Test match. He arrived late for the practice on Tuesday (July 16) to be with his fiancee, as the couple is preparing for the birth of their first child. England had called Dan Lawrence as the stand-by player. 

However, Trent Bridge, Duckett's new home ground, worked both for the left-hander and England. 

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