CHENNAI: "A man with new ideas," Marcelo Bielsa once said, "is a mad man, until his ideas triumph." Shubman Gill and India's management may have seen that quote plastered on a prominent Leeds wall on their way to Headingley. Bielsa, the Uruguayan coach, lifted Leeds, a famous old club, and gave them a thriving modern identity a few years ago.
Thirty minutes north of Elland Road lies Headingley, a similarly atmospheric ground, home to some of the greatest English triumphs, none greater than Ben Stokes' fourth innings Houdini against Australia in 2019. Almost six years later, they have another moment to rival that Ashes win. On a stop-start, sun feeling a bit shy kind of day, the hosts managed to hold their nerve over India to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
The hosts' usual suspect — Joe Root — took them home but it was Ben Duckett who orchestrated this run chase. Before dissecting the southpaw's century, his contribution will be vindication to the 30-year-old. At Nottinghamshire's media day just before the start of the English cricketing summer, he was asked about Jasprit Bumrah. The opener, who had faced the pace ace in India last year, was mindful of his threat but maintained that Bumrah wouldn't surprise him. That was taken out of context. Soon enough, he was forced to delete his X account because people hadn't taken kindly to his thoughts.
Forget Bumrah, none of the Indian bowlers on show surprised him. He did have a sizable dollop of luck — you need that when you are getting over 130 on the final day of a Test — in the form of close calls and several plays and misses.
But like all of the aggressive (and successful) modern openers, his methodology is dependent on compartmentalising. "Did I get beaten off the very previous ball?" Doesn't matter. "Did I misjudge the line?" No problems. "Did I get lucky?" Time to forget about it.
Unlike all of the other aggressive modern openers, he has a very compulsive need to play at everything. He has left somewhere between 1-2% of all deliveries he has faced as an opener (for context, Virender Sehwag used to leave over 10%).
Late on Monday, he left one delivery. On Tuesday, he didn't leave. When he finally left, he had 149 from 170 (21x4, 1x6). From start to finish, he batted like someone who believed he was going to win this Test for his side.
It included a phase in the first session where both Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were constantly testing the outside edge of Duckett in overcast conditions.
So, one of Bazball's primary operators decided to play the situation. Off Bumrah, he scored 5 off (one boundary, one single, 19 dots and two maidens) 21. The pacer beat him on a number of occasions but he didn't let it get to his head. You could also say that Bumrah didn't surprise him. It was just two athletes giving it their all.
In the first 45 minutes, Duckett had made seven off 27 for an overall score of 16 off 38.
The predator, though, was waiting, knowing his reward would be waiting. First, it came in the form of Prasidh Krishna, a bowler whose radar was off in the first innings.
Three boundaries, one, an edge over slips, another, a dismissive cut via cover and a third, a pull off a nothing short delivery, opened the gates. From the other end, Shardul Thakur had already started to bleed.
This was liquid Duckett, the man who almost always puts the bad balls away (nobody has scored more Test fours than him since June 2022). Against Thakur and Krishna, who have the very bad habit of bowling at least one bad delivery in the over, he was feasting.
In the second hour before lunch, he had raced along to an 85-ball 63 (a run-a-ball 47 after Bumrah's first spell).
After lunch, Gill decided to give Ravindra Jadeja an extended spell to target the rough outside Duckett's off stump. In theory, good. But the southpaw, the second highest run-getter in the Bazball era, is a proficient reverse-sweeper. Sweeping out of the rough is filled with risk but Duckett has low hands and practices that shot a lot. So, he got down on knee and repeatedly target the real estate either side of square on the off side. Jadeja had a 3-6 leg side field so the batter knew his margin for error was a lot if he did mistime.
The end result? He scored 31 off the reverse sweep, the second highest in a single innings. It was no surprise when he got to his ton with this shot. After this, he went into overdrive.
Between 2015 and the end of 2022, Duckett's career was going nowhere. He was pulled up on numerous occasions, there were a few alcohol related misdemeanors and he had also forgotten how to grip the bat as he tried to come back early post a nasty hand injury.
But he went away, relearned the art of gripping the bat with Peter Moores and Ant Botha and put up big domestic numbers for Nottinghamshire. He won them the Blast and averaged over 50 in red ball cricket. Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes gave him a call before the winter 2022 tour to Pakistan.
Stokes and McCullum surprised many when they picked him over Alex Lees. Or to quote Bielsa, all of Stokes, McCullum and Duckett came armed with fresh ideas. They were all called various names. On Tuesday, it triumphed. Again.
