You're it, Ben Duckett, but England's problems aren't about one man

Lost. Confused. Slow to react. Doubts about his positioning and self. And that's just been the six innings in Australia.

Every day of a dispiriting Ashes tour, there is always one main character. The goal is to never be it. Unfortunately for Ben Duckett, he headed into Christmas Eve in Melbourne as the protagonist in the latest episode of England's dire 2025-26 campaign.

Hours after Rob Key said he would look into the scale of drinking on the trip to Noosa between the second and third Tests, a video emerged allegedly showing Duckett inebriated on that four-day mini-break.

There was something quite predictable about it all. England's more social cricketers have been out and about freely since the start of the tour, without fear of any blowback. They have posed with punters regularly. And so, it was no surprise that as soon as Key flagged he would look into whether the team were "drinking heavily", a few willing submissions for his investigation came through on social media.

That the managing director said he didn't mind players having a glass of wine over dinner probably created an unnecessary (and unrealistic) threshold of what twenty-something cricketers would get up to on such a long tour. Based on the press conferences England have put on during the Ashes, it wouldn't be a surprise if an England assistant coach came out and boldly proclaimed that all this was fine actually because Duckett had ten dinners.

It was always going to look worse with the scoreline, and Duckett's average of 16.16 - the lowest of England's proper batters. Even Ollie Pope, who has been dropped for the fourth Test at the MCG, is averaging more with 20.83.

Duckett was absent from training on Tuesday but was present on Wednesday, in its own way an impressive show of owning the matter at hand. There has been plenty of fronting up in the days following on from Adelaide's terminal defeat as far as England's Ashes hopes were concerned, and this was one of them. He was greeted to the open MCG nets by applause from his team-mates and, at this juncture, it's hard to know if they were genuine or sarcastic, or even if it matters.

His captain Ben Stokes, offering a shield to his opening batter publicly, revealed he had spoken to Duckett behind closed doors. "Supporting them and letting them know that I will be there for them through thick and thin is very, very important, and Ben Duckett knows that," Stokes said of his role. That is nothing new, but Duckett will walk into the colosseum on Boxing Day, most of the 80,000 on his back, under more personal pressure than ever.

It's important not to conflate the two main issues. Duckett doesn't come across well in the video. Worse still, he knows exactly how strict Ashes tours can be having been sent home from one as part of the Lions squad in 2017-18 for pouring a drink on James Anderson. But the main problem is England have been awful, and Duckett, having arrived as a key tenet for Bazball in Australia, has been equally bad. He heads into Christmas as much an out-of-form saviour as a very naughty boy.

When Duckett returned to the Test team in 2022, it was off the back of a lot of hard graft. A first dip into Test cricket on the subcontinent went badly enough to send a precocious talent into a spiral of self-doubt and desperation. But the return, which involved a switch from Northamptonshire to Nottinghamshire, had been thrilling and, actually, responsible.

Only Joe Root and Harry Brook have scored more than his 2859 runs for the team since, and neither of them quicker than Duckett's strike rate of 87.83. Duckett's inclusion for the Boxing Day Test means he will take his streak to 38 consecutive appearances, making Root the only other mainstay in the Test side since his return. Few have fitted so seamlessly into this environment, on and off the field, to such an extent that he has become a mainstay in both white-ball sides.

All that, along with the fact that at 31, Duckett is the third-oldest in the group after Root and Stokes, makes him a senior head. Stokes described the left-hand batter as "an incredibly influential person within the group". Even back in March, Duckett acknowledged he needed to think more about the scrutiny that comes with fronting the batting across all international formats, after starting the year with a string of punchy utterances in the media that were prone to being twisted.

With all that comes responsibility, and that may end up being the crux of any exploration into Duckett, Noosa, and why this tour as a whole has capitulated so emphatically. But it would be incorrect and irresponsible for investigations from Key and ECB to focus solely on one man.

The trip to Noosa was organised by head coach Brendon McCullum a year in advance and signed off by Key. Part of the Ashes plan to reclaim the urn involved enjoying as much of the country as possible. Even Root urged his team-mates to enjoy it as much as possible despite the conditions his team were subject to during the 2021-22 tour.

Whatever fallout there is, and however many videos and stories emerge in the final few weeks, there needs to be a collective owning of mis-steps. Duckett is not the only player falling short with his performance, nor the cultivator of an environment that has led to a casual vibe confused by mixed messages for its biggest assignment.

Be confident heading into Australia, but don't be cocky. Get out and about, but not too much. Go hard at them but not with your hands. Enjoy the time-off in Noosa, but not like that.

This is usually the time of year to be reflective and thankful, but only one of those feels appropriate.

This, is Christmas. And lads… what have you done?!