New Delhi, Aug. 12 -- Ben Duckett had never quite been trusted with this kind of moment. In 2016, England dropped him after a single Test series, filed his name under promising and moved on. Ten years later, he stood at Lord's with the ODI series level and India needing one more England wicket to go 2-0 up, and he batted as if Lord's had always been his ground.

Duckett, bat aloft under the pavilion, having beaten the side that had just won the T20 World Cup two months earlier.

India had won the 2026 T20 World Cup. They had beaten England in the semi-final in what scorecards recorded as a 499-run night, a game so fast it set records for boundaries in a single international match. Rohit Sharma's team then beat New Zealand in the final for...