Nasser Hussain criticizes Ben Duckett after comments on Jaiswal
Ben Duckett has received a lot of flak in the aftermath of his statement that England’s Bazball approach should be given credit for Yashasvi Jaiswal’s aggressive style of play in the third Test in Rajkot.
Notably, the Mumbai batter played a blistering knock of 214 not out off just 236 balls, hitting 14 fours and a record-equalling 12 sixes, the joint-best in a Test innings. Jaiswal scored 29 runs off the first 64 balls he faced before accelerating remarkably. India eventually went on to win the match by a colossal 434 runs to go 2-1 up in the five-match series.
England opener Duckett, who scored 153 off 151 balls in England’s first innings, wanted Bazball to get the credit for Jaiswal’s swashbuckling knock.
“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,” Duckett had stated.
The statement has not gone down well with former England captain Nasser Hussain. The cricketer-turned-commentator said that Jaiswal’s upbringing, his hard work, and the IPL are the reasons behind his success. Hussain went on to add that the England players could learn a thing or two from Jaiswal’s batting.
“The comment on Jaiswal that he has learned from us, I am going to touch on that. He has not learned from you, he has learned from his upbringing and all the hard yards he has put in while growing up, he has learned from the IPL. If anything, I would look at him and learn from him,” Hussain told Michael Atherton on the Sky Sports podcast.
“So, whatever they are saying in public and in that dressing room, I hope they are going back into their room with self-introspection. I can look at that lad and learn from him. Otherwise, it becomes a cult, doesn’t it? At times, Bazball has been described as a cult where you cannot criticize either within or externally. Even in this regime, there is room for learning and improving,” he added.
Jaiswal is the leading run-getter in the series by quite some distance. In just six innings, he has amassed 545 runs at a mind-boggling average of 109. In addition, his strike rate is an impressive 81.10.
