Ben Duckett: I need to go and prove that I’m good enough to be on this team and so do the other guys

After the disastrous ODI World Cup, England needs to pull their pants down, flip them inside out, and put them back on while a new group of players is currently in the Caribbean, guys like Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Joe Root, and Jonny Bairstow are still sitting at home recovering and resting, ready to rejoin the team.

After the disastrous ODI World Cup, England needs to pull their pants down, flip them inside out, and put them back on. It is time to reset the white-ball.

What’s interesting about this most recent rebuild, though, is that the messaging about it being a rebuild at all seems to be coming more from the outside than the inside. Although a new group of players is currently in the Caribbean, guys like Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Joe Root, and Jonny Bairstow are still sitting at home recovering and resting, ready to rejoin the team (retirement announcements pending).

“There hasn’t been that message,”

Ben Duckett said after England’s first training session in Antigua, in reply to whether the message to the group was that this is a new era, with the shirts they’re playing in being theirs to keep.

“I need to go and prove that I’m good enough to be on this team and so do the other guys, so I don’t think it’s the case at all, this team could change next series.”

When England takes the pitch for the first of three ODIs against West Indies on Sunday, they do so in a Hunger Games-style situation, as opposed to being a brand-new side embarking on their quest, á la original 2015 White-Ball Reset™. 

Battling it out for the odd spot in the XI at the expense of their mates to their left and right. There’s a good chance that England’s upcoming best ODI team will resemble the one that came before it.

Consider the probable top three for this tour, which are Zak Crawley, Will Jacks, and Phil Salt. England supporters may anticipate that both Bairstow and Root will eventually return to the ODI lineup; in actuality, though, the three are competing for the opening berth left vacant by Dawid Malan’s departure.

When it comes to Ben Stokes’ replacement, you may group Duckett and Ollie Pope, presuming that Stokes scales back on ODIs and his total workload following this week’s knee surgery. 

During England’s first training session of the tour, Duckett batted for hours, and Pope, who had recovered from a shoulder injury he suffered during the Ashes, looked pain-free in the net. 

But there was one small matter of concern: Pope was still nursing his shoulder back to full strength, so he only threw underarm during fielding practice. Pope’s shoulder is still obviously not fully recovered, but England has reaffirmed that he is fit to play if chosen.

“I’m genuinely just thinking about the next three weeks,”

Duckett, who scored his maiden ODI century against Ireland in September, said at the prospect of this being a career-defining series for some players. 

“I know how difficult it is to stay in a team when there’s this many players and I think the biggest thing I’ve learned over the last 12 to 15 months is not thinking too far ahead.

“I just think it’s a massive opportunity to show what we can do. I’ve been around and not around the white-ball group for the past however many years and it’s been impossible to break into, so for me personally I’m just buzzing to get a go and be out here.”

It appears that England is experiencing the opposite of what conventional logic would have us believe—that the three formats are becoming more and more unlike. 

The current Test opening duo of Duckett and Crawley, Test vice-captain Pope, and generational talent-elect Harry Brook are among the new crop of white-ball players who are thought to be the ones to lead this side forward. 

Even when it comes to the ball, tall left-arm spinner Tom Hartley and Gus Atkinson, who signed a two-year contract with the ECB, is undoubtedly part of England’s preparations for the India Test series. The new players on display here are mostly either players who are on the Test side right now or those with multi-format aspirations.

Throughout the World Cup, Duckett was ready to substitute for Stokes if the Test captain’s knee entirely failed:

“I wasn’t even thinking about it [to be honest]. There was no way Stokesy was missing out. He would have hobbled through it and still scored runs.”

A cynic would counter that missing the World Cup turned out to be a lucky break for Duckett. An opportunity to rise unharmed from the ashes (not those ones) and ready to take the team forward.

“I don’t think there is ever a good time to miss a World Cup. It could be the only opportunity I have. So certainly not in that way. That same group of players could go out there and win that World Cup at a different time. It was tough to watch at times and I’m watching mates go out there and struggle. It was really difficult.

“[But] for me personally I have had six weeks to kind of take a breather – it has been a big 12 months for me – and it might be quite refreshing. I feel raring to go now.”

England will return to national duty with a tour of the West Indies after the World Cup. There will be five T20Is after three ODIs. Duckett is a part of the T20I and ODI teams.