Ben Duckett is expected to finish his international career on a high note in Southampton on Sunday, despite England’s decision to rest him for next week’s T20Is.
England have made one change from the lineup that lost by five runs at Lord’s to go 2-0 behind in the three-match series, with Jamie Overton replacing Saqib Mahmood.
It means they will once again rely on Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, and possibly Joe Root to shoulder the job of a fifth bowler, following Bethell and Jacks’ combined statistics of 1 for 112 in 10 overs on Thursday.
Duckett is one of three England players, along with Harry Brook and Jamie Smith, who have played in all 14 home internationals this season: six Tests, five ODIs, and three T20Is. Since the start of the Hundred last month, he has only gone above 20 once in ten innings, following up his five in the first ODI at Headingley with a rather scratchy 14 from 33 balls at Lord’s.
He has since met with England’s head coach, Brendon McCullum, and decided to skip next week’s T20Is, with Sam Curran replacing him in the squad. Marcus Trescothick, one of McCullum’s coaches, stated that the call was intended to ensure Duckett is “firing” ahead of a tough winter schedule that includes the Ashes in Australia and a T20 World Cup.
“Brendon spoke to him over the last few days, trying to get a gauge of where he’s at,” Trescothick recalled. “You assess each circumstance separately, taking into account the amount of cricket played and conversing with them to gauge their emotional state… This is the ideal [option] to maximise performance moving ahead as we enter a busy winter.
“We need certain players to be fire, and Ben is definitely one of them… We need the boys firing in November, December, and January. It’s a critical time. It’s not to imply that there aren’t significant things coming up, but sometimes you just need to let go of the gas pedal and recharge your thoughts. Then you can hop back on the horse and carry on.”
With Duckett’s retention, Tom Banton, their spare batter, will miss the series unless he withdraws late. However, he has not been freed to play for Somerset in the T20 Blast quarter-final against Warwickshire on Saturday night, and will instead remain in Southampton on standby.
McCullum took over England’s white-ball teams in January, becoming a coach across formats, but has yet to address their decline in 50-over cricket. They have lost eight out of 11 ODIs this year, including all three Champions Trophy matches, and are ranked eighth by the ICC following a string of bad performances.
Eight countries will automatically qualify for the 2027 World Cup based on the rankings, with South Africa and Zimbabwe guaranteed seats as Full-Member co-hosts, so England would likely have to fall behind both the West Indies and Bangladesh to lose out. However, the mere prospect of playing in the global qualifier causes embarrassment for the 2019 world champions.
“We’re in an interesting position where we need to climb those rankings,” according to Trescothick. “Longer term, there’s a wider picture: we need to go for the top of those rankings and beyond. We want to compete in the greatest contests, and we need to be a team that has evolved from where we were to compete like we did in 2019.
“Despite poor results, I believe we are developing and moving in the right direction. We’ve made a few changes since Brendon took over, and we believe we’re improving our cricket overall.”
Overton’s inclusion marks his first outing for England since his decision to put his red-ball dreams on hold caught the team’s management off guard. England’s managing director, Rob Key, described Overton’s choice as “unexpected,” but his selection for the third ODI underlines that he is still part of their white-ball plans.
England XI for the third ODI vs South Africa: 1 Jamie Smith, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Jacob Bethell, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid
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