Assume nothing: How Ben Duckett and Notts plan to change preconceptions on T20 Finals Day

NICK HOWSON: The biggest day of the 24-year-old's club career comes at Edgbaston this weekend after a campaign subdued by relegation but illuminated by the run to a domestic final

Of the perceived requirements of a successful team, squad harmony must rank alongside momentum and experience as the most overrated traits demanded of an all-conquering dressing room. Sporting history is dominated by groups who while their egos spilt over like effervescing kool-aid, their performances did the taking.

Nottinghamshire are perhaps the epitome of a team who challenge their public perception. Chequered pasts dominate various members of the squad. Joe Clarke is not being considered for selection by England after being charged with bringing the game into disrepute by the ECB. Alex Hales was omitted from the World Cup squad for recreational drug use. Ben Duckett was suspended for pouring a drink over James Anderson.

Add a Division One relegation into the mix and coach Peter Moores questioning the team's character and you have a possible cocktail of discord and friction. 

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Yet, from the shadows of a disastrous red-ball season has come the T20 Blast, which has regularly acted as the Outlaws' salvation in recent years. This Saturday represents Notts' fifth appearance at Finals Day - by the end of the weekend only four will have made more - and an opportunity to make this season memorable for all the right reasons, and reaffirm what is a stable dressing room environment.

“We're pretty close,” said one of those chastened figures, Duckett, who moved to Trent Bridge in 2018. “We all get on so well. There has been no arguing at all. We've all stayed positive ahead of each game. Obviously we've got something to look forward to this Saturday, which helps. It is purely been about skills on the pitch, there has been nothing more to that.”

Though the drop into 2020's eight-team Division Two hangs over the club, new life will at least be injected into Notts ahead of the trip to Edgbaston. Only six of the team who played in the defeat to Kent which went a long way to securing their fate are expected to run-out at Finals Day. Samit Patel, Harry Gurney, captain Dan Christian and Hales are all expected to come in for the opening semi-final against Worcestershire, offering a much-needed breath of fresh air through the team.

“When we play the white ball stuff we tend to have a few fresh faces and in the T20 campaign we've got DC (Christian) coming in as captain, Gurney, Hales,” Duckett added. “It has been nice that it hasn't been the same XI playing the whole time.

^{Notts will look to repeat their success from 2017 this weekend}

“When I was playing with Northants over the last few years we had the same XI playing all three formats. That is when it can be really tough when you're struggling in one you can take that into the other two formats. We've got such a dynamic squad here at Notts and we've got the white-ball specialists as well. It is a different side."

“Nowhere near our best” is how Duckett, 24, would describe Notts' North Group campaign which yielded six wins, four defeats and four no results. At no stage were they able to reel off three straight wins and no player sits inside the top 10 for runs scored or lowest economy rate with the ball, in the competition.

But like every champion thoroughbred, they have potentially timed their run to perfection. They saved their stand-out display of the season, perhaps of the entire competition, for the daunting visit of Middlesex in the quarter-final. A team with AB de Villiers and Eoin Morgan in toe were swatted aside, first by Gurney's death bowling which included getting the England captain, and then Hales' brutal 83 as the target of 161 was chased down with 22 balls remaining.

Though full of belief before the competition, Duckett believes that victory on the first Thursday of September was when the 2017 winners turned from contenders to favourites for this year's title.

^{Alex Hales has underpinned Notts' run to Finals Day}

“It was a perfect performance,” he gleamed. “That was the performance where everything sort of clicked and there is no better time to do it. I think shows how dangerous the side is. Hopefully, people will be looking at us on finals day as the team to beat.

“Regardless of form, you'd like to think any side would be worried about us in that format with the international experience that we've got. We showed in that quarter-final when we were at our best in the field, with the ball and then as a batting team that when we click and get it right we're a tough side to beat.”

Though there is ample talent to draw on in other areas, it is hard to foresee Notts gliding their way to a second T20 crown without a tangible contribution from both Hales and Gurney. Success for the former would act as a fitting finale to a season which promised so much, yet will be remembered for his absence from the winner's podium at Lord's in mid-July.

“I've spent a lot of time with Alex this summer and he is one of the best white-ball cricketers in the country, there is no doubt about that,” said Duckett. “He'll have been gutted about what happened and that he missed out on winning the World Cup. He was a big reason for England's success over the last few years. Everyone is pretty gutted for him but at the same time it has been our gain at Notts.”

^{Ben Duckett last played for England at the start of the 2019 summer against Pakistan}

With the T20 World Cup 13 months away the subject of England is a welcome one around the River Trent. Hales, Gurney and perhaps even Duckett himself - he played in the county's last outing in the format back in May - could form the core of the squad bidding for back-to-back white-ball world titles in Australia next year. Finals Day, therefore, represents the perfect stage to prove themselves to the wider world and in short, is the biggest of Duckett's club career to date.

“In my opinion it is probably the closest to an international game with a packed house at Edgbaston with all the pressure on, with it being a final and trying to win you're club a trophy,” added Duckett, who has played in four Tests, three ODIs and one T20 for this country but only once since 2016. 

“There are going to be selectors and however many other people watching on TV. If you have a good Finals Day it goes a lot further. You have other franchises watching and if you go well on the biggest stage of the year there are good opportunities for going away.

“The international thing is down to the selectors but for me I just want to try and have a good day and put a good performance and get Notts a trophy.”