Ben Duckett & Zak Crawley throughout the Test series were seen playing fearless brand of cricket. Ben Duckett amassed 343 runs and struck 1 ton in the Test series. The duo of Ben Duckett & Zak Crawley dictated the terms and in the Test series, they smashed five 50+ runs opening partnership which was quite a remarkable attainment for England fans.
The skipper Ben Stokes’ inability to bowl till the 4th Test match hurt the team massively. Ben Stokes finally bowled in the 5th Test match and on the very first ball of his spell, he got rid of the centurion Rohit Sharma and crashed his stumps. Perhaps, ECB missed a trick by not including Chris Woakes in the squad who could have contributed in all the 3 departments of the game.
What was Ben Duckett trying to do- Steve Harmison
Steve Harmison was having an interaction with ESPNCricinfo. Steve Harmison was quite confused with the shot selection of Ben Duckett in the 1st innings of 5th Test match. Steve Harmison pointed out that the side weren’t quite focused on the 5th Test match as they had already lost the Test series.
“It started with Ben Duckett. What he was trying to do, I’m not sure. Ollie Pope played a 23-ball innings, for an international No. 3, I struggle to understand, and it continued from there. The only person that really looked comfortable at the crease was Joe Root,” said Steve Harmison.
“It’s natural. It is human nature and natural that you will get to a point when your series is finished and you’re out of the series, you can’t win it, you got one Test match to play, and I think this was just one counterpunch I didn’t think England had in them to throw back,” he stated.
“I’ve got no problem with their mentality. Their mentality is why they’ve been in these Test matches. I know Ben Duckett said something, whether it got out of context a little bit or not, I think what he said was he wasn’t too far off the mark in the way India have played and the way India’s mentality has gone about this series,” he added.
The downfall of England’s batting line up
The skipper Ben Stokes was quite clueless against the spinners especially against the left arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav who foxed him with his deceptive variations. Jonny Bairstow’s place in the team is now highly questioned; against the spinners, it seemed as if he wanted to whack every ball in the stands and as a result, he was outplayed by India’s quality spin attack
It won’t be wrong to say that England missed the services of Harry Brook as well who didn’t take part in the Test series citing personal reasons. In the ever changing landscape of cricket, the boards must have like for like replacements available only if they want to win crunch bilateral Test series and ICC tournaments.