Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that England opener Ben Duckett is one of the best all-format batters in world cricket currently. However, he also added that Ben might not be in contention had Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma still been playing all three formats as well. Notably, Duckett scored 62 runs off 94 deliveries in the first innings and a 170-ball 149 in the second innings in the first Test against India in Leeds as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “If we see Ben Duckett’s performance, you will have to concede that he is good. He has performed very well over the last two years across the three formats. The first thing is that until Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were playing all 3 formats, he was not even in the conversation. They were like the Himalayas, and everything, no matter how big it might be, looks small in front of a mountain.”
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“Once they retired, you suddenly felt that all-format players have become very limited, and that he (Duckett) is the best among those who remained. However, there is a caveat. He hasn’t played Test cricket in Australia, played a total of three innings in South Africa, and his performance has been limited in India. So it’s not a straightforward done-and-dusted story,” he further added.
However, Aakash Chopra also added that Travis Head is competing with Ben Duckett for the accolade of the best all-format batter in world cricket currently as well.
“Travis Head is standing next to him. If you see Travis Head’s last two years’ numbers, you would say, ‘Wait, Michael Vaughan.’ He might be slightly behind in Tests, but when you see ODI cricket, and the big matches, you look at the 2023 WTC final and the 2023 ODI World Cup final, scoring runs in big matches is the biggest yardstick,” he said.
“This guy does that job. So if you do man-to-man marking, the numbers are quite similar, Ben Duckett is ahead in some areas and Travis Head is ahead in other areas, but, in my humble opinion, I think Travis Head is slightly ahead of him just because he has done very well in big moments,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
