Dazzling Duckett upstages history-making Ashwin - Chris Waters

Duckett was dropped two Tests into that five-match series, which England lost 4-0, as Ashwin exploited a technical deficiency that saw Duckett - then batting at No 4 - playing with half a blade from deep in the crease.

Seven years on, the now 29-year-old opener has matured as a cricketer and a character too, the “loose cannon” tag - not helped by the infamous episode when he poured beer over James Anderson in a Perth bar while on the 2017-18 Lions tour of Australia - an ever-fading label.

After six years in the wilderness, during which he moved from Northamptonshire to Nottinghamshire, Duckett scored his maiden Test century on his comeback appearance against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in December 2022.

No one has come to epitomise the concept of Bazball more markedly than the barnstorming left-hander, whose naturally aggressive style conjures the cliche “marriage made in heaven”.

Duckett’s returns from Rawalpindi onwards speak for themselves: 1,275 runs in 14 games and counting at an average of 55.43.

He walked off at stumps on day two in Rajkot with 133 to his name out of 207-2 from just 35 overs, leaving England 238 runs behind after they bowled out India for 445 after the hosts started the day on 326-5.

It wasn’t just the speed of Duckett’s scoring (118 balls faced, with 21 fours and two sixes) but the style of his strokeplay, the match situation and the quality of the bowling that distinguished his efforts.

If Ollie Pope produced what was rightly regarded as one of the finest innings by an English batsman on the subcontinent in the opening Test of the series in Hyderabad, where his 196 engineered an extraordinary comeback triumph, this was up there and could potentially inspire a similar outcome.

Whether sweeping, reverse-sweeping, driving, cutting, pulling, paddling, you name it - Duckett was devastating.

One reverse hit into the stands for six off Ravindra Jadeja was Pietersen-esque in its dismissive brutality, while the purists would have purred at the on-driven boundary that raised his hundred from 88 balls, his fifty having come from 39 deliveries.

India, it must be said, did not help themselves, holding back Ashwin against his “bunny” of yore and creating little pressure with men stationed around the bat. They looked like a team in need of a captain, with too much passivity and too little hard-edge.

The highlight of their day was Ashwin’s 500th, the ninth man to achieve the feat and the second Indian after Anil Kumble. It is fair to say, however, that Ashwin has bowled considerably more threatening deliveries in his career than the one which raised the milestone, Zak Crawley top-edging an ugly and unnecessary sweep to short fine-leg off a ball that pitched outside leg stump. No matter...

Only Muttiah Muralitharan (87) has reached the 500 figure in fewer Tests than Ashwin (98), while only Glenn McGrath (25,528) has got there from fewer balls bowled (Ashwin needing 25,714).

For a man who learnt his art playing tennis ball cricket on the streets of Chennai, he has done himself, his family, and his great nation proud.

Ashwin’s 500th could have derailed England, who had raced to 89-0 from 13 overs prior to Crawley’s dismissal, 68 of those to the dazzling Duckett. But there was no lapse in concentration or loss of momentum, Pope playing a lovely little hand of his own with a pleasant 39, ending when he was lbw on review to Mohammad Siraj.

If that took the gloss slightly off England’s day, Joe Root stuck around with Duckett until the finish, the Yorkshireman having played his part in a good start to that day from England’s perspective.

Root had Jadeja driving back a return catch early in the piece, having added only two to his overnight 110, although England were held up by some good batting from eight, nine, Jack - Messrs Dhruv Jurel, the wicketkeeper, scoring a fine 46 on debut, Ashwin 37 and Jasprit Bumrah 26.

Ashwin ran straight down the pitch at one point and, after similar warnings for Jadeja and Sarfaraz Khan on day one, England were awarded five penalty runs.

Added to their first innings score, which then began with a no-ball, it meant that England were 6-0 off 0.0 overs – Bazball gone bonkers.

Pope and Ben Stokes shelled a couple of catches, but England stuck at it, exemplified by Mark Wood’s 4-117 from 27.5 overs of unrelenting effort.

A day they will remember chiefly in India for Ashwin’s achievement, though, belonged really to Duckett, now no longer Ashwin’s “bunny” but the rabbit that they pulled out the Bazball hat.