India captain Rohit Sharma has put Ben Duckett firmly in his place after the England opener suggested Bazball should take some credit for Yashasvi Jaiswal’s double ton in Rajkot.
Jaiswal, 22, has been the standout player of this winter’s series between India and England, hitting double centuries in the second and third Tests to help the hosts take an unassailable 3-1 lead heading into the final contest.
The young left-hander smashed 12 sixes en route to an unbeaten 214 at Rajkot’s Khandheri Cricket Stadium – the joint highest number of sixes in a single Test innings after Wasim Akram’s extraordinary knock for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in 1996.
In Dharamshala, Jaiswal could also go past Virat Kohli’s tally of two hundreds to join Mohammed Azharuddin and Rahul Dravid for the most centuries from an Indian player in a Test series versus England.
In the wake of Jaiswal’s sublime innings in Rajkot, England batter Duckett received a fierce backlash in India after claiming his opposite number’s ‘aggressive’ approach was inspired by the way the tourists were playing under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.
‘When you see players from the opposition playing like that, it almost feels like we should take some credit that they’re playing differently than how other people play Test cricket,’ the Nottinghamshire opening batsman told ESPN.
‘We saw it a bit in the summer and it’s quite exciting to see other players and other teams are also playing that aggressive style of cricket.’
Sharma, who has largely been overshadowed by his opening partner across the series, said he was unsure what ‘Bazball’ meant when asked about the term at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
‘I honestly don’t know what it means, whether it is to go and strike, whether it is to go and defend and wait for the loose ball,’ the Indian skipper told reporters.
‘I have not seen any wild swinging from anyone, so I don’t know exactly what this term means. But, yeah, clearly they have played better cricket from what they played the last time they were here.
‘You got to give credit to two of their batters who got big hundreds there, and played well. They applied their method to get some success and they got it. But other than that I don’t know what it means.’
The veteran captain reminded Duckett of the existence of Rishabh Pant – India’s wicket-keeper-batter, known for his aggressive style of play – when quizzed on the Englishman’s comments after the Rajkot Test.
‘There was a guy called Rishabh Pant in our team, probably Ben Duckett hasn’t seen him play,’ he joked.
Sharma revealed that India were yet to make a decision over their team for the Dharamshala but said there was a ‘good chance’ the hosts would opt for three seamers.
‘If we feel the weather is going to be like this, there is a good chance. We’ve not yet completely decided on it, but there is a good chance,’ he added.
‘The last time we played a Test match here was in 2017 against Australia and both seamers and spinners were in play, but I’m not too sure [about this Test]. It’s a different weather here, I don’t really know too much about it.
‘But looking at the pitch right now, it looks like a good pitch. Obviously you have to expect, when there’s weather like that, that there will be some movement, and maybe later on as the game goes on there will be some turn or something like that.’
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