'India's first-hand experience of Bazball' - Aakash Chopra after Ben Duckett's domination in 3rd Test

If day 2 of the 3rd Test between India and England remained in favor of the visitors then it was all because of the dominance posed by English opening batter Ben Duckett who finally converted his blistering starts from the first two Test into something significant, into a full century, which is his first on Indian soil. Upon seeing his terrific knock, expert analyst Aakash Chopra claimed that this is exactly what the true Bazball style of play looks like.

No one was that much shocked with the way Ben Duckett batted yesterday after the early dismissal of his partner Zak Crawley for just 15 runs to become the 500th wicket of veteran Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who has made matters worse for India after pulling out of the entire 3rd Test due to a medical emergency in his family.

The Indians have just become a bit more in-experienced after Ashwin’s exclusion as Rohit Sharma’s side are already without the likes of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer in the batting order. Given that Ashwin also provides an extra edge with his contribution with the bat, it’s not just his bowling that will be missed in this match.

Devdutt Padikkal has been named as his replacement but the Karnataka man is only eligible to field as a substitute according to the International Cricket Council’s rule book. With a lot already happening against the Indians, it will be interesting to see how things proceed on day 3.

But the man who fell under the spotlight yesterday from England’s perspective was Ben Duckett. The short but aggressive left-hander has well and truly shown how far he has come in his career after the setback he faced during England’s 2016 tour of India when he was dropped from the playing XI after disappointing figures of 13, 5, and 0 across innings in the first two Tests.

He was heavily troubled by Ravi Ashwin back then and during the initial phases of the series in Hyderabad and Vizag, Ashwin would claim his wicket twice. Duckett had scores of 35, 47, 21, and 28 across the 4 innings of the first two Tests but he has finally converted those starts into a century.

“Bazball is like this” – Aakash Chopra opines on Ben Duckett’s display

After the conclusion of day 2 in which England dominated the last two sessions, Aakash Chopra stated that Ben Duckett had shown the true color of Bazball.

Chopra stated this is India’s first-hand experience of coming across the ruthless style of batting and feels that the Indians have somehow fallen short by another 125 runs in this tailor-made pitch for batting.

“The second and third sessions were in England’s name. They were seen totally dominating. Who said you can’t bat like this in Test cricket? This is our first-hand experience that Bazball is like this, we were hit for almost six runs per over,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel. 

“Whoever came kept hitting and said that the pitch is extremely flat, that you might have scored 445 but that’s not going to be enough because you have still left 125 runs on the pitch, and that this was actually a 550 to 575-run pitch.” – Chopra concluded.