Duckett’s century proves he’s no one-trick pony, writes NASSER HUSSAIN

Ben Duckett would feature heavily in the conversation – alongside the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rachin Ravindra – when considering the best multi-format batsman in the world right now.

With the recent retirement of Virat Kohli, and Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson all deep into their 30s, international cricket is looking for a new Fab Four and Duckett would have to be a contender for it.

The Nottinghamshire left-hander has developed into a phenomenal player: composed, compact, technically excellent.

Before he was recalled three years ago, I would have said that in England, against the Dukes ball, an opener that doesn’t leave it much, if at all, would be vulnerable.

But he has shown time and time again since that he can bat against it and thrive.

Traditional English openers like Geoffrey Boycott and Michael Atherton, or even India’s KL Rahul, have left the ball outside the off stump, making bowlers come to them.

Duckett sees it completely differently – even if he did let a couple go at the very start, causing us all to rush to the statisticians to find out when the last time was that he left two deliveries in a row.

For all his unorthodoxy, though, when he hits the ball, he’s a very orthodox player.

In this innings of 149, he scored more in the V off the seamers than I could recall previously.

Everyone knows that he scores square of the wicket, and he cuts and pulls well and so India went fuller to him. But he drove beautifully straight, whether it be offside or legside.

He strikes me as someone who works on his game a hell of lot. I remember a couple of years ago, in one-day cricket, he was hitting lots of sweeps in matches.

But in practice, he would come down the pitch and try to belt everything down the ground. Why?

Because opponents would put the fielders they were allowed outside the fielding circle during the first 15 overs square of the wicket, he knew if he could develop shots back past the bowler, one of those fielders would be moved, and then he could go back to playing his favoured shots.

Anticipating where opposition bowlers will target you is smart batting. Of course, his playing of spin is just phenomenal – the range of sweep shots make him hard to stop.

But I was surprised that India missed a trick yesterday by just having one boundary rider out.

If you’ve got someone that’s a very good slog sweeper, like Ben Stokes say, opponents immediately have two men out there in the deep.

So, when you have someone who’s a very good reverse sweeper, why wouldn’t you just have two men out the same?

Duckett was sending that man behind square left and right with every shot, but if Shubman Gill had posted two fielders out, it would not only have cut out the boundary option, but maybe forced the left-hander to try to knock the ball into the off side for a single or two, opening up the gap between bat and pad.

I was also surprised that India’s premier spinner Ravindra Jadeja didn’t bowl into the rough outside off-stump more as he did to Stokes.

Duckett’s partnership with Zak Crawley at the top of the order is so important to England, and the reason they’ve stuck with Crawley, despite an obvious need for him to score more runs, is because the combination of different statures works well for both of them.

Crawley, tall, comes at you, a good driver of the ball; Duckett, shorter, left-handed, sits back, cuts and pulls well. They complement each other very well.

The tempo they set during a 188-run stand for the first wicket wasn’t Bazball at all. The tone they set wasn’t extravagant, they just played normally and scored quickly because Headingley is a ground that allows you to with its extra pace and bounce.

And Duckett led the way. We’ve seen some great knocks from left handers on this ground this century – Stokes’ match winning brilliance in the 2019 Ashes, Mark Butcher’s big hundred in the chase against the Australians 24 years ago, and this was right up there with them.