Despite the lack of public action from the England & Wales Cricket Board after a demoralising 4-1 Ashes defeat, the shifts behind the scenes are still apparent, given that Ben Duckett does not know if he will start the summer’s opening Test series against New Zealand.
“You tell me!” came his response on Friday at Nottinghamshire’s media day. Duckett was standing in the rain a week before the club’s County Championship defence gets underway at Somerset, in which he could feature, having turned down the heat of the IPL.
A £200,000 deal with Delhi Capitals has been spurned . It was his own decision, not enforced by the ECB, even though a three-year competition ban is in the offing. All to push for an England Test place that, at least until the tour of Australia, was seemingly his for keeps.Online criticism for his late withdrawal has been loud, especially from India where there is a broader frustration with England players – including Harry Brook – entering IPL drafts and not honouring their deals. He deleted his X account months ago, which has insulated him from most of that.
Duckett will now spend more time with his young family, after just six days at home from the middle of October to the second week of March, when England’s travels ended with their T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to India. “I’m still processing it a little bit,” Duckett said. “My wife would probably say I’m getting used to not dealing with room service all winter and all that. It’s taken time for me to get back into the swing of things.”
The other, vital strand is throwing his lot in with Nottinghamshire. A few net sessions with an observant Peter Moores have already taken place ahead of the pursuit of early season red-ball form, with which he hopes to restate his Test credentials.
Ben Duckett is all smiles as he returns to Nottinghamshire’s whites•Getty Images
“Now they know I’m not going to the IPL… I’m sure they’ll look at that in a positive way, with how I’m looking forward with my career.” Duckett said of the intent he has shown head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes by staying put.
“We haven’t had loads of discussions. I think I’m going to give Baz a call next week, have a little catch-up. See how he’s doing and stuff. Ultimately, he’s had a long winter as well and it’s not all about me.
“It’s nice to have a bit of time at home. Ultimately, for me, it’s pretty black and white – I just want to score runs for Notts, perform to the best of my ability and whatever is the case moving forward.”
Duckett managed just 202 runs at 20.20 in the five Tests against Australia, with a top score of 42. It was far cry from the domineering left-handed opener who was averaging 46.03, with six hundreds, in the 34 Tests following his recall to the set-up at the end of 2022. In 10 full Test series since that return, the 2025-26 Ashes was the first in which Duckett averaged under 30.
“I’ve had a bad series,” he said. “I know that, I’m not proud of it, I didn’t want it to go that way. But I do feel I’ve achieved some things in an England shirt I never thought I’d do.
“The one thing is I’d love to win an Ashes and perform well in an Ashes. But I also know opening the batting against the brand new ball in the hardest conditions every single time, it’s not going to always work out like that. Rooty, what, it was his fourth Ashes away or something? And he finally conquered it, almost. It’s a tough place to go, it’s not somewhere we normally go and win, or have batters averaging 60, 70 throughout the top order. It is hard.
“I’m trying now to park that and sometimes you’ve got to hold your hands up and say they were better. It was extremely difficult. That’s probably where, over the last two months, I’ve struggled with it.”
When pushed for specifics as to why his form deserted him, a wry smile accompanied Duckett’s description of a “a six-foot-five bloke who bowls 93mph, who is pretty good in his home conditions”, citing the brilliance of Compton-Miller medal winner Mitchell Starc. But in a week that started with Key pushing for greater professionalism within the set-up, Duckett admits he was not in optimum condition “building into the Ashes”.
Mitchell Starc was a constant problem for Duckett throughout the Ashes•Getty Images
“I obviously got married, had a honeymoon and I potentially got that wrong,” Duckett said of the weeks leading into the New Zealand ODI series. After 11 runs in three innings – admittedly, in seaming conditions not unlike those he’ll be facing in the coming month – Duckett travelled to Perth with the first cohort of England’s Ashes party to work on his fitness while many of the other batters stayed on for a golf trip.
He was certainly not the only player whose fitness was queried behind closed doors. Duckett acknowledges professionalism throughout the team is a clear area for improvement.
“Throughout the Ashes I was working hard and I don’t think I was in really bad shape. But I’ve always had a journey where I’ve kind of gone up and down with it.
“I’m getting older now and, when I finish playing for England, whenever that is, [I hope] it’s due to the amount of runs I’ve scored not injuries, picking up niggles, those kind of things. Just trying to be really focussed on making sure my body is in a good place and that element is not an issue.
“We are playing professional sport for our country so that (professionalism) should be a non-negotiable. It’s not a secret, it’s something I’ve struggled with throughout my career, from Under-19 cricket. Certainly for me, this block is more important for me in terms of my fitness side of things. I’m not getting any younger and I definitely want to make that a priority moving forward.
“It’s no secret that we can definitely tighten up on some areas and I think that will be the case moving forward. To be honest, I’m all for it. I want to prolong playing cricket for England and the professional side of that is certainly going to help.”
There were mental challenges too for Duckett to contend with, and not solely down to troubles against Starc et al. Hours after Key announced he would investigate the mid-series trip to Noosa between the second and third Test, a video emerged of Duckett drunk in the main strip of the beach resort, unable to find his way back to the team hotel.
The regret remains, and he appreciates the support shown to him at the time footage emerged, in the build-up to the Boxing Day Test, having already lost the Ashes outright the week before following defeat in Adelaide. The ECB and Stokes stood by Duckett. Even Australia batter Travis Head got in touch to check in and defend him publicly.
Duckett’s winter included white-ball series in New Zealand and Sri Lanka (above) before the T20 World Cup•Getty Images
“It’s not something any professional sportsman should be doing,” Duckett said. “I think it’s a fine line of the timing that came out. It seemed like the day before a Test or something, but we were having a break, which was planned before the series.
“If we’re winning that series, it’s probably not news. No one cares. If Travis Head’s in that video, everyone’s probably absolutely loving it. And that is sport; we were struggling as a side, I was struggling as a player, you shouldn’t be putting yourself in a position like that, any human being, let alone a professional sportsman. That was a really tough period for me and certainly wasn’t my favorite Christmas I’ve had in my life.
“I guess the one thing, looking back on it, is the support I had from the ECB. They could have easily not been very supportive to one of their players who, in a tough moment in a big series, it wasn’t not what they needed. I thank Keysy, Baz, Stokesy for all the support that they gave me. Certainly I shouldn’t be doing that. I did hold my hands up but, yeah, I’m not very proud of it and got to move on now.”
Moving on takes many forms, particularly with fans who were dismayed and, at times, gaslit by the level of underperformance out in Australia. The biggest steps forward, as Duckett states, “comes from performances”.
“I can understand how it looks but no one is more disappointed than that dressing-room. You only have to be in that dressing room at the SCG, or before that when we lose it, or even at the MCG [where England won their first Test in Australia since 2011]… how important it is to us.
“We were all England cricket fans at one point. We’ve been there. We’re fortunate enough to be in the position now where we control the emotions of everyone. I think that will come with performances.
“Hopefully, moving forward, we will just see over time how much playing for England means for us.”
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo