India vs England: Ben Duckett played a skillful innings against a good Indian attack, says Mark Wood

England pacer Mark Wood was all praise for Ben Duckett’s century on Day 2 of the third Test against India in Rajkot, saying that Duckett played with real bravely and showcased his skills to the best against the Indian attack. Wood went onto say that Duckett is usually a “nightmare” to bowl at during nets sessions, adding his reluctancy to leave the balls.

England went into stumps on Friday with a score of 207/2, trailing India by another 238 runs in the first innings. Duckett was unbeaten on 133 while he had Joe Root at the other end who was not out on 9.

“He played with real bravery. To be that far behind in the game and go out and play like that showed real bravery and skill,” Wood told the media after the day’s play when asked about Duckett’s third Test century. The way India changed the field and then he’d hit it somewhere else, it was such a skillful innings against a good attack. He’s a nightmare to bowl (to) at the nets; we try to get him to leave one but he never leaves any,” he said.

“Maybe, he hasn’t gotten the accolades that he would like with big scores, but this was his day and it was amazing to watch. It’s a rapid outfield and we certainly felt it was tough to contain, and Ducky (Duckett) really took it on and played in an aggressive fashion to put the pressure back on India,” Wood added.

The England quick revealed he was not aware of the rule where England were awarded five runs for Indian batters running on the pitch. There were two instances where Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja ran on the pitch during India’s innings and umpire Joel Wilson awarded England five runs.

“I was not aware, I was at deep-square on the boundary. When the umpire (signalled), I was like ‘what is going on here?'” Wood said.

“I honestly didn’t know the rule which is pretty shocking for an international cricketer, but I just assumed that when all the lads were looking at each other and giggling, that something had happened,” he said.

“Jonny (Bairstow) was very adamant about looking after the wicket, he wanted everyone to be off it. I get warned plenty of times for running on the wicket when I bowl, so it’s nice to get one back off the batters,” Wood added.

With PTI inputs