Ben Duckett has burst into form with a stunning 113-run innings on his home turf, but what's been driving this resurgence? According to the England opening batter himself, it's all down to a concerted effort to get fit – and lose weight. A four-week fitness block over winter was the catalyst for change, and those six kilos (13lb) melted away in no time.
Ben Duckett's candid admission is clear: he knows that prioritising his physical condition has been the missing piece of the jigsaw in his cricket career to date. "It's an area where I haven't necessarily helped myself or been great at," he confesses, but it was a conscious decision to commit to the programme – and it paid off in spades.
The opportunity to dedicate such a sustained period to fitness is rare, Duckett acknowledges, and he made the most of it. He's lost weight before, but this time it felt different: "You don't get many windows where you can go and lose the amount of weight I lost."
Of course, Duckett's century wasn't without its moments of drama – like that hair-raising edge to slip when he was on just eight runs. "It was a karmic comeback," he quips, recalling the time he got run out without blame in a previous match. England's fightback as a whole was nothing short of remarkable: down by 101 with only six wickets left, they snatched those last six first-innings wickets for just 77 runs – Ben Stokes leading the charge with three in eight.
New Zealand's collapse from 317 without loss to 438 all out was a seismic shift in momentum. "A lot of teams would have folded in that position," Duckett notes, praising England's never-say-die spirit under captain Stokes's leadership. The fact that New Zealand still held the lead didn't dampen Duckett's mood – his century and the team's resilience set them up perfectly for what was to come.