England star Ben Duckett’s bizarre claim on India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal did not go down well in the cricketing fraternity, as the comment, which was made at the end of Day 3 on Rajkot where England lost by 434 runs against India, has not just been shot down by former England cricketers, but also has been lashed out at by ex-Australia captain Michael Clarke. Praising Jaiswal for his epic knock of 214 not out, his second consecutive double century in the series, Duckett said that England’s Bazball approach had encouraged other cricketers from around the globe to use their aggressive style.
“He looks like a superstar in the making, unfortunately he’s in some very good form at the moment,” Duckett said of the rising Indian talent. “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.”
Reacting to the statement on ESPN Australia’s Around The Wicket, Clarke reminded Duckett of some of the Australia’s yesteryear stars in Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist saying that aggressive style of Test cricket was played much before England’s Bazball concept.
“He must have missed Australia for 20 years,” Clarke said. “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. Matthew Hayden just walked down the wicket and hit you straight over your head for a six. He didn’t have to play a ramp or a switch hit.”
Despite England suffering a second consecutive defeat in the series against India, which led to many veteran cricketers questioning the Bazball approach, Clarke rather hailed Ben Stokes and his men for imbibing this style of play, but reiterated that they aren’t the first team to play Test cricket aggressively.
“I love the aggressive approach of England. I think it has worked, they are building a really good foundation to play great cricket. They are getting the results they want, they did it in this Test [Rajkot]. Playing in India is tough: you can sit there and block, you gonna get one with your name on it. You might try a reverse sweep and you might hit it straight to backward point. It’s just the way the game goes,” he said.
“I think people need to be realistic and understand, as a batsman, your job is to score runs and there have been plenty of great players and plenty of teams around the world score plenty of runs against good opposition. England is not the first team to play aggressive or bat positively.”
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