Joe Root's rash dismissal sparked a first-innings batting collapse for England in the 3rd Test vs India but Ben Duckett came out in defence of his teammate and also Bazball.
“I'd be interested to know if those people were against it when he was doing it to Pat Cummins and hit him for six in the summer. So, yeah, I have no words really for it. I think it's the same as me playing a reverse sweep and getting caught at point. So, options are practised and shots that have been very successful for him over the past year. So you know next time, just hit it over second slip," said Duckett during the media interaction after the day's play.
Root was not alone in contributing to the collapse - Duckett chased a long hop after a scintillating 153 from 151 balls, Jonny Bairstow made a 4-ball duck and Stokes holed out for 41 on his 100th Test as England lost their last five wickets in 38 deliveries.
“We're always positive. It did happen quite fast (the end of the England innings). There wasn't much time to have much emotion, you know, and ‘Stokesey’ spoke to us before we went out to field and said he actually wanted us to go out there today and have a bowl at them and get cracking with it. You know, slightly earlier than planned."
"You know, we didn't plan to have the collapse we did, but, you know, there are options that this team takes. And, you know, I feel like if we're going to go like that, we'd be like that every other day. Because when you're playing this exciting brand of cricket and always taking the positive option, you have to stay level. These things are going to happen. And today was one of them, you know. On the flip side, I do think they (India) had a very good day. You know, they didn't have a very good day yesterday. And I thought they'd bounce back today and were superb," concluded Duckett.