ENG star justifies old comment on ‘world-class’ Yashasvi Jaiswal which drew him criticism: ‘…he was incredible’
Duckett talked about his old comment and said it was a compliment to Jaiswal and asserted that the young Indian star was incredible throughout the series.
England Test batter Ben Duckett walked down memory lane and recalled his old comment on Yashasvi Jaiswal, which he felt was misinterpreted by many. Jaiswal had a memorable series with the bat against England earlier this year, where he slammed 712 runs in 5 Tests to join Sunil Gavaskar in an elusive list of Indian players to score 700-plus runs in a Test series. The left-handed batter played with an aggressive intent on tricky batting surfaces to set up a 4-1 Test series win over England.
After the Rajkot Test, Duckett made a bold claim that the credit for Jaiswal's success in the series should also go to England's batters. His comment was criticised by many, including former English skipper Michael Vaughan and Michael Vaughan.
However, recently, Duckett once again talked about that and said it was a compliment to Jaiswal and asserted that the young Indian star was incredible throughout the series.
"It was actually me paying him a nice compliment. I’m pretty sure I said he was a world-class player, but no one spoke about that. Would I have said what I did during the fifth Test? No, because he played like that throughout the whole series, and he was incredible," Duckett said on DailyMail.
Duckett, who has played 23 Tests, plays with an aggressive intent and is one of the key players in Brendon McCullum's system in England's ultra-attacking approach with the bat in red-ball cricket.
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Duckett on playing under McCullum's coaching
The 29-year-old opened up on playing under McCullum's coaching and how the former Kiwi captain instilled confidence in him to get the best version out.
"It was Baz (McCullum) who said: “Why do you have to go and bat like these previous openers? Why can’t you be the best version of yourself? That’s what I am," he added.
However, Duckett also pointed out the negatives of playing with a fearless approach in Test cricket.
"It has its downfalls: I nick off quite a lot. But I’ve also scored a lot of runs in that area. If I start to leave more balls, I bet you I’d still nick off and still score a lot less runs."
