Harry Duke is hoping a relaxed mindset can help him progress his game during a winter of grade cricket with the Melbourne first grade club Essendon.
Yorkshire’s developing wicketkeeper-batter has been in Australia for just short of a fortnight now, his first taste of winter club cricket having recently graduated from Leeds University with a Business Management degree.
The 23-year-old is one of four Yorkshire players playing in the city this winter, with Ben Cliff and Will Luxton playing at Greenvale CC – also in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition – and Noah Kelly with Beaumaris.
Duke ended the season impressively in second-team cricket with Yorkshire, scoring 255 and 64 in a Championship defeat against Middlesex at Merchant Taylors’ School in September. And with him having completed his studies, he has headed Down Under in a good place.
Fingers crossed, that continues for the effervescent gloveman who has played two matches so far, scoring nought and XXX
“I had quite a nice end to the year in the second team. I had some decent scores towards the end of the season. I’ve come out here pretty battle-hardened from the UK summer, and I’m really looking forward to it,” said the former England Under 19.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Harry Duke is out in Melbourne this winter.
“I’ve not come out here with any specific expectations other than to just enjoy my cricket and hopefully come back to Yorkshire ahead of next summer a better player.
“It’s quite a nice time in my life to be out here.
“I’m not 18 or 19-years-old anymore, and I feel I’m ready to embrace everything this experience has to offer.
“A bit of a work-on for me is just relaxing into my game and enjoying it. But I’ve definitely got that drive and hunger to score runs week in, week out and to win matches for Essendon.”
The most recent summer was certainly an interesting one for Duke, and without doubt a progressive one.
He played two early-season Vitality County Championship matches on loan with Essex, under the stewardship of new Yorkshire coach Anthony McGrath, and featured in 10 first-team matches for his home county, scoring a century and a fifty in 50-over cricket.
Picture by Stu Forster/Getty Images. Harry Duke during his early-season loan spell with Essex.
Duke played in a three-day friendly against the West Indian Test side at Beckenham at the start of July, for a First-Class Counties XI, and he helped Yorkshire’s second team reach the T20 final at Wormsley. They were beaten by Somerset.
Personally, he finished as the country’s leading run-scorer in second-team Championship cricket with 826, including that mammoth season-ending 255.
It was an innings very much in the Harry Brook and Joe Root mould for England out in Pakistan.
“Seeing them go about it in what looks like it’s mid to high-end 30 degrees out in Multan was pretty impressive,” he said, before chuckling.
“It wasn’t quite that warm in late September at Merchant Taylors’.
“It was more the chill factor which did me, to be fair!
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Ben Cliff and Harry Duke will likely come up against each other in Melbourne grade cricket this winter.
“Seriously, though, it was really nice to get that score and end the season the way I did.
“You feel like your game’s in a good place coming out here to Essendon, but we all know that this game’s a leveller. You just have to take it as it comes.
“It would have been nice to win a bit of silverware in the second team, but we’ve been pretty close the last two years in the T20.
“That’s real credit to (coaches) Tom Smith and James Lowe and the work they’ve done on pushing lads to really embrace white ball cricket and take the game on.
“Noah is out here, and he’s had a good campaign in the white ball stuff, for example.”
Duke only scored one competitive fifty in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup in August, a fine 60 opening the batting during a superb victory over Warwickshire at Rugby School.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Will Luxton scored a superb One-Day Cup century against Warwickshire at Rugby School in August. Like Harry Duke, Luxton is also wintering in Melbourne.
The Bears were joint top of the group table at the time, but the Vikings chased down 243 to win by six wickets thanks to contributions from Duke, George Hill with six wickets, Luxton with his maiden first-team century and Matthew Revis with a half-century.
Duke recalled: “That game against Warwickshire, it was nice to beat them first of all but also to see Luxy – one of my close pals – go on and get a big hundred. It was a really nice day out for the lads.”
Duke had returned to the top of the order having started the campaign batting in the middle order, where he scored a blistering 106 not out off 55 balls.
“I wanted to score a few more runs than I did in the one-day stuff,” he continued. “But it was important for me in the sense that it proved to myself that I do have a bit more of a power game than I previously thought I had.
“Against Shropshire, I got that hundred in the middle order and played quire nicely against Sussex at York as well (38 in a victory). That was another one I was happy with.
“Importantly, it helped me realise that I can be effective in whatever position I’m asked to bat.”
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Harry Duke in Metro Bank One-Day Cup action this summer.
The plan is for Duke to be out in Melbourne until early to mid-March. He will return to Headingley in time for a pre-season tour.
He is staying with the family of Essendon’s president: They’ve got a beautiful house just 10 minutes walk away from the ground, Windy Hill,” he said. “I’ve definitely fallen on my feet.
“The facilities are unbelievable as well, the club’s so well run, and you can tell the standard is very high.”
Initially, he will not be keeping wicket for Essendon, though still working hard on that side of his game away from match days.
“With Cliffy, Luxy and Kells being out here, I’m sure we’ll also do a lot of work away from club training, especially after Christmas.”
And, of course, there is the prospect of Duke versus Cliff and Luxton. He added: “We’ve got Greenvale end of January, I think, so that will be good fun playing against those two. I can’t wait.”
