Ben Duckett vows to ‘take every chance’ for England | New Zealand overlook late Trent Boult call-up | Cricket News

Ben Duckett is determined to make the most of his England career. Duckett fell out of favour as quickly as he rose through the ranks and now does not want to miss another minute of playing for England.

He first represented his country in 2016, playing four Tests and three ODIs in Bangladesh. But then, aside from a solitary T20 appearance in 2019, he was not seen again for the best part of six years.

Now he is back and has secured a spot into both white-ball squads as well as being handed the chance to lay claim to England’s Test opening position.

With a hotly-anticipated Ashes series hovering into view, he is the man in possession heading into Thursday’s series opener against New Zealand.

The 28-year-old is intent on making the most of his chances, turning down a January payday at the IL20 league in the United Arab Emirates in favour of England’s low-key one-day series in South Africa and heading over for their T20s in Bangladesh as soon as his Test commitments are complete.

Test skipper Ben Stokes retired from 50-over cricket last summer after concluding that kind of scheduling was no longer possible, but Duckett is happy to make up for lost time.

“My sole focus is playing for England. I won’t be missing out,” he said. “Three or four years down the line, who knows [if I can keep it up]? But right now it’s about playing as much cricket as I can for England, it’s something I’ve been working for for five or six years now.

“I pulled out of a T20 comp just before South Africa to give myself some time to refresh, so I’ve already made decisions to give England everything. For me, this is my priority and I’ll be trying to take every chance I get.

“I’ve worked really hard over the last few years and I genuinely wasn’t expecting even 12 months ago to be playing all three formats. I guess that’s credit for the hard work I’ve put in over the last few years and I’m thankful that I’m here.”

In the immediate term Duckett’s job is to kick off the innings alongside Zak Crawley in the day/night clash at Mount Maunganui.

Back in December he scored one of four centuries on the opening day of what would become a 3-0 whitewash over Pakistan, as England smashed a staggering 506 runs in just 75 overs. He admits that record-breaking day, which marked his maiden international hundred, will be a high bar to match but has not given up on trying.

“We’ll do well to go better than day one in Pakistan,” he said. “But with this pink ball, in these conditions, it might be suited to going harder. Sometimes, when it’s tricky, you may see us go even harder.

“I’m in a position where I can set the tone. Opening the batting in Test cricket, there are going to be times where I’m going to have to respect good bowling. But the way I’ve always played is if people miss or people bowl poorly, I’m going to try and take them down early and try and get us off to a good start.”

Boult overlooked for New Zealand call-up

It would have taken Trent Boult less than half-an-hour to answer New Zealand’s seam bowling problems against England this week, but Black Caps head coach Gary Stead has revealed discussions about a late call-up never got off the ground.

Boult is one of just four Kiwis to boast more than 300 Test wickets and his presence would significantly strengthen the home side’s hand in the day/night Test at his home ground in Mount Maunganui.

But in August the left-armer negotiated a release from his national contract, with an eye on cashing in on franchise offers, and his participation in the IL20 league meant his initial absence from the squad was no surprise.

But when two of the pace attack were ruled out, Kyle Jamieson with a suspected stress fracture and Matt Henry by the imminent arrival of his first child, local favourite Boult looked to be an attractive solution.

However faith instead was put in those who were committed to red-ball cricket at domestic level, meaning the uncapped pair of Jacob Duffy and Scott Kuggeleijn were drafted in instead.

“Trent is back from the UAE and lives about 20 minutes from here. We discussed it internally but our decision was not to go with Trent on this occasion,” explained Stead.

“We spoke to him recently, but since Trent chose to give up his contract then we have made it pretty clear that priority would go to others. It does not mean we have ruled Trent out from anything in the future. There will be ongoing discussion and I’m not sure what the landscape of the cricket world will look like in six months. It might change again.”

Stead praised the recent form of both Duffy and Kuggeleijn but was also forced to confront issues around the latter’s suitability for the national side.

Kuggeleijn was tried twice for rape, with a hung jury unable to return a verdict in 2016 before a second found him not guilty the following year.

Many were still left extremely uneasy about Kuggeleijn’s account of the incident and when he represented New Zealand’s T20 side in 2019, banners stating ‘no means no’ and supporting the #metoo movement appeared at grounds.

Asked if he judged Kuggeleijn on any grounds beyond his cricketing ability, Stead said: “That is not my job, I guess, to do that. I get given the players I can select from and he was on the list.

“We have gone with a resilient character from a bowling point of view. When you lose two key bowlers, you look around and ask who are the guys who can do a job for us internationally and he is one who can.”