The former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has slammed England opener Duckett after an India series remark ahead of the Champions Trophy 2025.
Duckett had claimed that he didn’t care about the series defeat against India as long as England went on to win the ICC tournament starting next week.
Duckett has created quite a fuss when he said that he didn’t care about a 3-0 defeat to India if they end up winning the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
This discomfort didn’t sit well with many pundits who slammed Duckett for his comments. Kevin Pietersen has also slammed the dressing room attitude of the England team.
Speaking on his show, Ashwin said that the India series loss would have put a dent in England’s confidence.
“No matter what Ben Duckett says but going into the Champions Trophy, this series loss will create a big dent to their confidence,” said Indian former spinner.
The former spinner said that the humour cannot hide England’s poor performances in the recent past and claimed that they have struggled to justify their potential.
“Ben Duckett has said similar things in the past too, saying Yashasvi Jaiswal has learnt playing aggressive cricket from England’s bazball style.”
“I know Ben Duckett and his penchant for humour.. but this was no joke and it is like you are hiding your failures behind a humour.”
“Your 2023 ODI WC were pretty bad as well. It isn’t like they are in a bad form over 2-3 months. It has been the case for four years now,” said former spinner.
“Despite having such a talented group they are not able to justify their potential.” In the end, England suffered a 3-0 clean sweep defeat in the ODI series against England. The three lions haven’t won an ODI series since their disastrous World Cup 2023 title defence.
England has placed in Group B along with Australia, South Africa and Afghanistan. As per England’s Champions Trophy schedule, their first match will be against Australia on February 22 at Gaddafi Stadium.
