Star defends previous controversial comment on Yashasvi Jaiswal: 'He was truly exceptional'

England Test batter Ben Duckett reflected on his previous comment about Yashasvi Jaiswal, which he believed was misunderstood by many. Jaiswal had a phenomenal series against England, scoring a remarkable 712 runs in just 5 Tests to join the likes of Sunil Gavaskar in the exclusive club of Indian players who have scored over 700 runs in a Test series. Duckett praised Jaiswal's aggressive approach on challenging pitches, which played a crucial role in India's 4-1 series victory over England earlier this year.

After the Rajkot Test, Duckett made a bold claim that the credit for Jaiswal's success in the series should also go to England's batters. His comment was criticised by many, including former English skipper Michael Vaughan and Michael Vaughan.

However, recently, Duckett once again talked about that and said it was a compliment to Jaiswal and asserted that the young Indian star was incredible throughout the series.

"It was actually me paying him a nice compliment. I’m pretty sure I said he was a world-class player, but no one spoke about that. Would I have said what I did during the fifth Test? No, because he played like that throughout the whole series, and he was incredible," Duckett said on DailyMail.

Duckett, who has played 23 Tests, plays with an aggressive intent and is one of the key players in Brendon McCullum's system in England's ultra-attacking approach with the bat in red-ball cricket.

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The 29-year-old opened up on playing under McCullum's coaching and how the former Kiwi captain instilled confidence in him to get the best version out.

"It was Baz (McCullum) who said: “Why do you have to go and bat like these previous openers? Why can’t you be the best version of yourself? That’s what I am," he added.

However, Duckett also pointed out the negatives of playing with a fearless approach in Test cricket.

"It has its downfalls: I nick off quite a lot. But I’ve also scored a lot of runs in that area. If I start to leave more balls, I bet you I’d still nick off and still score a lot less runs."

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