England batsman suspended after alcohol-related antics

England’s Ashes campaign has taken yet another beating as batsman Ben Duckett has been handed suspension following an alcohol-related incident in a bar in Perth during a team night out on Thursday. Duckett was set to open the batting for England in a two-day warm-up match against Cricket Australia XI at Richardson Park that started earlier today.

The 23-year-old was included in the squad from England Lions’ team, which is also in Perth. The batsman stepped down on Saturday morning and is now suspended while a disciplinary investigation into his behaviour is in the process. It has been reported that Duckett poured his drink over the head of a senior English cricketer after a heated argument.

Joe Root’s England side had countered a lot of off-field antics in the last couple of months. All-rounder Ben Stokes is yet to get a clearance from the board and legal bodies as he is under police investigation following a fight-night episode, outside a nightclub in Bristol.

ECB in ‘no-nonsense’ mode

Andrew Strauss, England’s director of cricket, had earlier pressed in a curfew on the national team after the Brisbane Test. The visitors  have taken some strong measures against such incidents.“There is no way that you can or should be putting yourself or the team or the ECB or the game of cricket in a position where people are making judgements about the sport on the back of what you’re doing on a night out. And that’s what the players need to understand. They have been told about this before.” he had said.

Australia Test squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird.

England Test squad: Joe Root (c), James Anderson (vc), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Gary Ballance, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Mason Crane, Tom Curran, Ben Foakes, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Chris Woakes.