Ben Duckett is determined to become a regular at the top of England’s one-day team after making his first appearance as an opener with 95 runs in Thursday’s defeat to Australia in Nottingham.
Duckett, 29, has made the position his own in Test cricket but has finished third and fourth in 11 previous One-Day International outings. He will now hope to build on the momentum he created at Trent Bridge into Saturday’s second match of five against world champions Australia in Leeds and towards the next global trophy: the Champions Trophy in February.
“It felt really good to bat at the top of the order. Particularly in Test cricket, the white ball doesn’t move that much and it’s a place I’ve always wanted to bat but never found where I could get to,” Duckett said.
‘I am of course very happy that I started well and hopefully I can make a decisive move in the next match.
‘There’s obviously a lot of cricket to be played over the next few months, starting with the 50-over competition. Hopefully I’ll be in a strong position at the end of the series.’
Ben Duckett has set his sights on an ODI opening spot to emulate his position in the Test squad
He impressed with his 95 in the opening ODI clash with Australia on Thursday before being softly dismissed
The left-handed pitcher’s promotion is a sign of the increased homogeneity expected between Test and 50-over teams with Brendon McCullum taking full charge of coaching this winter.
“I think that’s a really good thing. I think over the last few years it’s probably been two completely different teams, with a little bit of overlap, and certainly the coaching staff coming in now and Baz taking over, it’ll be a bit of a breath of fresh air,” Duckett continued.
“I’ve been fortunate to work under him over the last few years and he’s taken my game to the next level. He finds ways to get the best out of everyone. I hope the next six months can look pretty exciting for English cricket.”
England go into the second match at Headingley on Saturday morning under the leadership of stand-in captain Harry Brook having failed to capitalise on a dominant 170 for two at mid-innings in the first match.
Frustratingly, Australia are without their key bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood due to illness, and one of their understudies, Ben Dwarshuis, is off the field with an injury. This has caused the batting to collapse and they have lost eight wickets for 102. This was due to spin, and part-time spin in the case of wrecker-in-chief Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head, who later scored an unbeaten 154 – the highest ODI score by an Australian in this country.
“I think we did a lot of things right. They were potentially very strong in the moments when they won the game. We were in a position to maybe get to 350 or 360, which could have been a different game,” Duckett said.
England capitulated from 170 for two to 315 all out before Travis Head’s 154 not out led the visitors to victory
‘And if we had taken one more wicket in the powerplay, namely that of Travis Head, we would have won the match straight away.’
England will decide whether fast bowler Jofra Archer will play back-to-back matches. The fact that he bowled just six overs in Nottingham suggests he didn’t bowl too much. The Australians, on the other hand, will be hoping that Starc, Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell have recovered from flu.