At The Oval, Duckett set the tone for England making 221\/3 by hitting nine fours and two sixes in a 79-ball 86 to leave Sri Lanka dazed. \u201cLet\u2019s be honest, Sri Lanka were poor. It was almost like they\u2019d never bowled to a left-hand, right-hand combination before, but Duckett never let them settle at all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cThey kept bowling on the legs early on, or even outside the line of the pads, and then when they over-corrected, they were short and wide. Where does Duckett like the ball the most? Short and wide outside off-stump. He put them to the sword.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cLater, after the rain delay, he started scooping and upper-cutting fours and sixes. Yes, scooping was his downfall in the end, but so be it, because it is his role in the side. I like his attitude because there have been plenty of opening batters before him that have come unstuck when not playing shots.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cSometimes coaches over-talk. One of yesteryear might have asked: why did you play that shot? A hundred was there for the taking. Not Brendon McCullum, though. They have an ingrained attitude to risk taking and Duckett is at the heart of it,\u201d wrote Hussain in his column for Daily Mail on Saturday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
He also talked about how Duckett is different from other England batters as he attacks balls outside off-stump rather than leaving them. \u201cBy the time he had added 86 runs to his tally, Duckett had swelled his tally of balls played at this series to 197 of 198.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cContrast that to players like Graham Gooch and Michael Atherton, two more predecessors as England openers who would ignore deliveries outside off-stump and make the bowlers bowl in areas they wanted them to. Or compare Duckett to any other modern Test opener for that matter. There is literally daylight between him and the rest.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cHis career leave percentage is 1.7%, making him nearly five times as likely to play than Pakistan\u2019s Abdullah Shafique, the next man on the list with 8.3%. India\u2019s Yashasvi Jaiswal is next with 8.9%. Also consider that Dom Sibley and Rory Burns, two of the openers in the previous England regime, boasted 25.3% and 21.5% respectively.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWhen everything is in the bowlers\u2019 favour, that is exactly how the England team management want him, Duckett to play - putting pressure back on the opposition. Leaving might be a high percentage choice for others. Not him. He always sticks to his guns.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Hussain signed off by suggesting Australia will use Duckett\u2019s attacking instincts to outside off-stump balls as a point to exploit but felt the batter won\u2019t change his style of playing down under during the Ashes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWith batsmen, however, your strengths can also be your weaknesses and I expect Australia to play on this in next year\u2019s Ashes. They will bowl at fourth stump, with a deep point, because they know that he hits it there a lot.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cEqually, if a player is playing that kind of shot every ball - with the extra bounce on Australian surfaces - they could nick off. But I can\u2019t see him changing. He will give it a go and that aligns with the constant messaging from the England dressing room.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cWith batsmen, however, your strengths can also be your weaknesses and I expect Australia to play on this in next year\u2019s Ashes. They will bowl at fourth stump, with a deep point, because they know that he hits it there a lot.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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