Ben Duckett: the fiery talent with the topsy-turvy career

With the news that he has joined Nottinghamshire on loan ahead of a three-year-deal, The Cricketer looks at the explosive talent’s career of ups and downs and where he may fit in at Trent Bridge

^{Ben Duckett has had a career full of ups and downs}

Northamptonshire batsman Ben Duckett has had a career that, to date, has included a vast mix of highs and lows.

With the news that he has joined Nottinghamshire on loan ahead of a three-year-deal The Cricketer looks at the explosive talent’s career of ups and downs and where he may fit in at Trent Bridge.

Career Profile

Youth career

Duckett is a product of Buckinghamshire independent school Stowe School and he became a part of Northants youth set-up when he was eleven-years-old. He made his first-team debut at the age of against Leicestershire in 2013 17 and struck an unbeaten fifty in this very match to showcase his credentials.

Duckett surprisingly received a call-up to the Northants Twenty20 side because of injury to Kyle Coetzer as they won their first T20 Blast trophy against Surrey in 2013. To start a recurring theme of off-field issues, Duckett was dropped a few months later by England Under-19s for failing a fitness test and admitted that "complacency" had crept in.

At the Under-19 World Cup in 2014, the Northants’ man played a star turn with standout performances against India in the quarter-finals and Australia in the third-place play-off. He collected Man-of-the-Match awards in both contests on his way to averaging over 60 for the tournament with Alastair Cook the only other man to have done the same.

Ups and downs in 2015

Duckett had a troublesome time at the start of 2015 when he was omitted from Northants’ pre-season Barbados tour due to poor fitness levels once again, further bringing his commitment into question. In the summer, Duckett was also hit by a drink-driving ban.

He responded by scoring heavily in the Championship after Northants' coach David Ripley took the risk of promoting the flashy middle-order batsman to open. Duckett hit a run of form which brought four Championship hundreds in his last eight innings of the year. At the time, the batsman said: "I'm not the most focused person, and can lose concentration in quite a lot of things. But, right now, scoring runs is the most important thing in life."

Career-best year

Duckett excelled in all formats in 2016 with standout moments including scoring the sixth-highest first-class score for Northamptonshire, a one-day double-hundred for the Lions, and brilliance on NatWest Blast Finals Day. This all brought the batsman onto England’s radar.

The Northamptonshire man scored 2,706 runs in all formats  and Wisden made him a Cricketer of the Year stating: "He batted with panache, impish ingenuity, confidence and courage - all before turning 22."

^{Ben Duckett struggled during his time in the England Test team}

Time with England

Duckett joined up with England during their difficult away tour to Bangladesh, where they drew the Test series 1-1 after collapsing in the second and final match.

Initially, the batsman fit in well and took to the one-day series impressively with two half-centuries as the visitors took the series. The longer format proved far harder as Duckett found himself exposed by R Ashwin as he scored only 92 runs in four innings at an average of 23. He was, thus, dropped and returned to the county circuit.

 “Lowest point of career” 

Last winter saw, as Duckett himself describes it, the “lowest point” of his career. Touring with England Lions in Australia at the same time as the main England side, Duckett stole the headlines after throwing a beer over James Anderson in a Perth bar. Coming at a particularly bad time with England’s controversies surrounding Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and drinking, and given his past troubles, Duckett was fined and suspended from the tour, cast away from the England set-up.

Where may he fit in to the Nottinghamshire side?

Joining Ben Slater, Duckett is Notts’ second big batting signing of the season. Clearly, those at Trent Bridge are taking big effort to bolster their ranks with the willow in hand, even taking a risk on an inconsistent and fiery talent like Duckett.

Duckett could potentially add to Nottinghamshire’s batting reserves in the middle-order, however, he may form a potent English opening partnership with other new acquisition Slater. With overseas opener Kraigg Brathwaite only around until the end of the season at this moment in time, Nottinghamshire may be looking to the future to build strong batting foundations around Duckett in the four-day game.

DUCKETT JOINS NOTTS ON LOAN AHEAD OF THREE-YEAR DEAL