Yashasvi Jaiswal celebrates his century against England© AFP
Former Australian cricket team skipper Michael Clarke blasted England batter Ben Duckett for his comments regarding India youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal. Following Jaiswal’s double ton in India’s win over England in the third Test encounter in Rajkot, Duckett commented that England’s Bazball approach has encouraged other cricketers from other teams to play aggressive brand of cricket. Clarke was not pleased with the comment and during a discussion on ESPN Australia’s Around The Wicket, he recalled the likes of Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting to point out that the aggressive style of batting pre-dates Bazball.
“He must have missed Australia for 20 years,” Clarke said. “As a youngster, he must not know what Test cricket Australia played. Has he heard of Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist? These guys used to smack it as good as everyone.”
“Because you play a reverse sweep or a switch hit or a ramp shot, that doesn’t mean you are batting aggressively either. Matthew Hayden just walked down the wicket and hit you straight over your head for a six. He didn’t have to play a ramp or a switch hit,” he added.
Earlier, Duckett’s statement resulted in a lot of criticism among former cricketers.
“He looks like a superstar in the making, unfortunately he’s in some very good form at the moment,” Duckett said.
“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. 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.”
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