Ben Duckett insists the final scoreline on this tour of India will pale into insignificance if England complete their mission of winning a first Champions Trophy next month.
Successive four-wicket losses have left an England team being re-shaped by head coach Brendon McCullum on the brink of a one-day whitewash here and an overall deficit of 1-7 across the eight limited-overs matches.
However, Duckett said: ‘This is a massive series but the Champions Trophy is the big competition. If we lose 3-0 to India, I don’t care as long as we beat them in the final of the Champions Trophy. If we do that, we probably won’t look back on this.
‘We are playing one of the best sides in the world in their conditions and we are quite a new group under Baz. We have come here for one thing, and that is to win the Champions Trophy.
‘It’ll be completely different. Different conditions, all different teams we are playing against. I feel we have a good group for those conditions and we will hopefully have people peaking at the right time and finding form. It’s difficult not to get the results here, but hopefully we can turn it around in Pakistan.’
England losing a one-day series in India is nothing new. This is their seventh in a row and you have to go back to 1984 since they last won here.
Ben Duckett says he ‘won’t care’ about England’s ODI series defeat against India as long as they beat them in the final of the Champions Trophy
England have already lost the ODI series and are at risk of a whitewash against India
India have beat England in seven consecutive one-day international series on their turf
Frustratingly, their defeats in Nagpur and Cuttack have followed similar themes: failure to build on opening stands of 75 and 81 between Duckett and Phil Salt leaving them shy of posting match-winning scores.
But in trying to turn around an overall demise of 32 defeats in 62 outings since winning the World Cup six years ago, they remain committed to the Bazballian principles that have transformed England’s Test cricket.
‘I could reel off individual players, just look through the talent in the group. We have been close against this India side and we have been nowhere near our best,’ Duckett said.
‘We will always take positives. We could dwell and start meetings and going at each other but the group under Baz aren’t going to do that. It’s finding the positives, looking at how we can be better in situations, but we are not going to take a backward step. It won’t always come off.
‘It’s not like we have lost to one of the worst sides in the world in England. I’m not making excuses, we believe we can beat India, but we are playing them in their home conditions and they don’t lose a lot of cricket over here.’
Duckett looked on course for his third ODI hundred in 18 innings at the Barabati Stadium, but perished on the rope trying to hit Ravindra Jadeja for six.
‘I am not content with getting 65. This format really excites me. I have the opportunity to make it my own,’ he said.
‘I have faced Jadeja in Test cricket and it’s no different, really. I could go into my shell there and get out next over by not being positive.
Duckett insists England are staying positive despite 32 defeats in 62 outings since winning the World Cup
‘Maybe this is a learning curve for me, but I’d be very surprised if I am knocking a left-arm spinner around next game.’
One added twist to England’s current travails is that they could be sucked into a scrap to qualify for the 2027 World Cup unless they turn things around.
Currently seventh, they could slip further when the annual rankings update takes place this spring and only the top eight nations at the end of 2026 – discounting hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe – are guaranteed passage to the tournament proper. The next two countries head into a qualifying competition with a host of associate nations.
Under the ICC’s points system, a re-calculation occurs each May 1, applying a 100% weighting to results of the previous 12 months, 50% for the preceding two years and removing those from 36-48 months ago.
This is bad news for England given that they’ve lost seven of 10 in the current cycle while winning all five of their 50-over internationals between May 1, 2021 and April 30, 2022.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan and West Indies, two of the teams below them in the standings, are about to shed negative sequences and have positive ones valued at 100%.
Afghanistan won two and lost four in 2021-2022, but have defeated South Africa and Bangladesh, both 2-1, and Zimbabwe 2-0 this year.
And West Indies, who know only too well the perils of a qualifying shoot-out after missing out on the 2023 edition, will lose a 2-7 record and are 6-3 in the ongoing period.
England travelled to Ahmedabad today with Jamie Overton (foot) the latest to report a niggle. He will be further assessed ahead of the final ODI in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
Jacob Bethell has already been ruled out of the Champions Trophy with a hamstring strain while Jamie Smith is nearing fitness ahead of Wednesday’s squad submission deadline following a calf injury.
