Ben Duckett on the road to joining the best

The beauty of Test cricket as a batter is that it is a code of the sport where individual success has a greater onus on the team's success.

Such traits do exist in white-ball cricket. But the way line-ups are pieced together, with precise skillsets required for clearly defined roles, batters can bat too long, too short, face strike too little or too much to knock whole plans out of joint. In the red-ball game, however, when you are, let's say, faced with a chase of 371, greediness is welcome. Where Test history is concerned, the one with themselves in mind can be king.

And so there was Ben Duckett, about half-an-hour after the 6:29pm finish, metaphorical crown upon his head, very real magnum of bubbly in his hands. A sixth Test hundred - 149, his third-highest score - had him as player of the match after England's second-highest successful chase. Greed had served him well, siphoning off almost 40 per cent of the runs for himself, and standing out in a Test with five other centurions, one of whom had two.

England were cruising while Duckett was at the crease. The initial contrast with his opening partner Zak Crawley was clear. A stand of 188 in which Crawley, the one with the license to thrill, providing just 65, having posted his slowest half-century from 111 deliveries while Duckett had taken just 55 for the second half of his full one.

The sketchiness when he departed, however, underlined his bombast and brilliance, having left just 118 for the rest to clear. As he watched on from the balcony, it was akin to the sporting equivalent of earwigging your own funeral. The situations beyond his innings confirmed the scale of its quality.

Ben Stokes' approach to playing the reverse sweep against Ravindra Jadeja - half of his 16 shots botched, just eight runs from the shot - highlighted just how good Duckett had to be to score 31 from 12 attempts. There were six boundaries among them, including the four that took him to three figures from 121 deliveries, and a ludicrous flat six over cover point. Tuesday was the seventh time Stokes has been dismissed by Jadeja. Duckett has not only avoided such a fate but boasts the highest strike rate of anyone to have faced the left-arm spinner.

The reverse sweeps might not have come through for Stokes, as he scuffed one to opposition skipper Shubman Gill at slip. But it was more effective than his neither forward nor back approach before tea, which produced the odd pop up to keep the close fielders interested. As it happens, the shift in method came after seeking inspiration from Duckett, who by now had showered, got into his training gear and was settling in to enjoy the culmination of a chase he never lost faith in. This was Stokes' manor in 2019 and here he was six years later, asking someone else for directions.

"I actually spoke to him when we came off for that tea break," revealed Stokes. "He's one of the best in the world at reverse sweeps, sweeps, a fantastic player of spin in particularly on really tricky surfaces. I had a little word with him about what he thought I could potentially look at doing a little bit better, to give myself a better chance."

Part of Stokes' desired hurry up was related to the eventual return of Jasprit Bumrah, with 102 still to get in the final session. Duckett was the only one who had not just sit on him, though he blocked - and even left - some of the 33 dots of the 49 deliveries exchanged. But among the other 16 was a four punched down the ground - something which no one had done. Partly it was only to him that the Indian great thought pushing for the stumps was a tactic, because other avenues had been exhausted. So came a flick through midwicket. A retaliation bumper, pulled off the nose, all-but ended Bumrah's threat with the first ball.

The 31-year-old bowled three more overs with it after Duckett had chipped Shardul Thakur to cover. Stokes and Joe Root bunkered down, taking just two singles. Part of that was lacking what hold Duckett seems to have over Bumrah, which, since the start of 2024, amounts to scoring more runs against him - 110, off 170 deliveries for three dismissals - than any other batter.

But the lack of intent to Bumrah was also because England were ahead of the game that risks were unnecessary. Duckett had taken them all for himself. His dismissal as the third wicket came midway through the 55th over with 253 on the board. It meant India needed snookers to protect as much of the remaining 118 to ensure they could make the second new ball count.

In the end, it was used for just two overs, bowled by Mohammad Siraj and Jadeja. As Jamie Smith blitzed the stands to confirm the win with Bumrah left grazing on the leg side boundary, England's joy was enhanced. The three "Bumrah Tests" were always going to be that little bit more important. This opening victory came with a welcome sense that the next two may not be as treacherous as first feared after a wicketless 19 overs when he was needed most.

There's a strong argument that Duckett is the best multi-format batter in the world right now. The problem is such debates tend to elicit the kind of tedious back and forths that last long enough for a drop in form.

But fresh from what ranks as his greatest knock, in one of England's best wins, let's lay a few things down. Like the fact that, since his return to the Test side for 2022's tour of Pakistan, only Root has been more productive. And yes, while England do play a lot of Test cricket, Duckett's average in that time - 47.37 - is higher than both Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja, who have played as many as his 30 matches.

There's also the fact that he is now averaging more as an opener (44.98) than Alastair Cook (44.86). One of Brendon McCullum's favourite lines is that opening the batting in England is so hard that the last two to do it well - Cook and Andrew Strauss - were knighted.

From another Sir dumping a drink over his head on the 2017-18 Ashes tour (James Anderson), to sword-on-the-shoulder numbers, Duckett's journey to this point has not been straight forward. Time coming back from a chastening first go in Tests, time on the naughty step, time under the knife for a ring finger injury in 2018 and time reworking a grip corrupted by an early return to action have been drivers towards this incredible purple patch. If ever there was someone who was not going to take any of this for granted and make up for what he might have lost, it is him.

Which brings us to the drop on 97. Because while a genuinely hair-raising moment for English observers when Siraj was hooked out to Yashasvi Jaiswal at deep square leg, it signified that Duckett may not be greedy enough.

Even with 167 on the board, the focus was on building a bigger platform and further demoralising an India attack for his team-mates. An attack who were gradually realising the consequences of their own errors with the bat in the first and second innings were coming to the fore.

Could he be more productive? Should he be more selfish? The beauty of Test cricket is there is always room for more of both, hand in hand. Right now, though, Duckett is not just doing more than most, he's doing it better than some of the best, and on the path to joining them outright.