In 12 months' time, Ben Duckett should get the chance to open the batting for England against Australia on his home ground for the first time. Trent Bridge has not staged an Ashes Test since 2015 but is set to host the first Test of the series next summer. As a result, Duckett may even face the first ball of the series.
It is a moment that any young cricketer would dream about - but first, Duckett must ensure that he gets that far. The intense scrutiny on Zak Crawley, finally dropped for this series, means that Duckett's own recent struggles have slipped under the radar: to lose one opener may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both at once would look like carelessness.
But Duckett has underperformed for some time now, and will know it. It was exactly a year ago that his most recent Test hundred, an outstanding fourth-innings 149 against India at Headingley, prompted many to wonder whether he was among the world's best all-format batters. He is rarely mentioned in those conversations now.
Since that century, Duckett has averaged 26.19 across 21 further Test innings; since the start of the Ashes in November, he has played seven Tests without reaching 50. His ODI runs have dried up since last year's Champions Trophy, and earlier this week he was quietly dropped from England's T20I squad to play India after running the drinks at the T20 World Cup.
Duckett's professionalism was called into question over the winter. He was sent to Perth ahead of schedule to work on his fitness after arriving in New Zealand out of shape, and when footage circulated of him slurring his words at the end of a mid-series night out in Noosa, it reinforced the sense that he was cruising.
He responded by pulling out of the IPL at late notice, a decision which irked Delhi Capitals but was designed to help him rediscover his red-ball form under Peter Moores' guidance at Nottinghamshire, as well as giving him some time at home with his young family. It looked to have paid off when he made 503 runs in seven innings, including 203 not out against Surrey.
But it has yet to translate into Test runs: he has made four starts, but scores of 19, 33, 36 and 9 only underline a series of missed opportunities. He has been outscored by Emilio Gay, his new opening partner, and his second-innings dismissal at The Oval - a toe-ended, half-hearted pull to midwicket - was the shot of a batter caught in two minds.
There is plenty of context to Duckett's returns in this series. He played well at Lord's on a fiendish surface, and had flown to 36 off 25 balls at The Oval before Gay called him through for a non-existent single after nudging one to Nathan Smith at cover. There is enough evidence, therefore, to suggest that he is not far away.
But he will know heading into this series decider that he owes England a score. At 31, and with 45 Test caps, Duckett is a senior player now. He cost his team badly when he dropped a straightforward catch at midwicket on the second morning at The Oval, early in Kyle Jamieson's 87-run partnership with Glenn Phillips, and should be desperate to make up for it.
The other pertinent question surrounds his tempo. It was unusual - unnerving, even - to see him leave the first two balls of the Lord's Test, where he played out maidens in the first over of each innings. His strike-rate of 71.32 across the first two Tests is slower than he has scored in any series since his brief first crack at international cricket a decade ago.
For all the talk of England trying to change their style after defeat in Australia, it would be self-defeating for Duckett to play within himself. In second-guessing their attacking approach, England have forgotten that its whole purpose was to imbue players like Duckett with the confidence and clarity they need to be at their freewheeling best.
Home comforts should help him this week. Duckett loves batting at Trent Bridge, and his record shows why: he has averaged 45.05 on his home ground in the County Championship since joining Nottinghamshire, and his three previous Test scores here are 71, 76 (both against West Indies in 2024) and 140 (against Zimbabwe last summer).
English cricket has been consumed by speculation about Ben Stokes over the past two weeks, and his return as captain in Nottingham after an effective one-match ban will inevitably dominate the first day's play. But for Duckett, this Test arrives with a tantalising opportunity: to shift the spotlight from one Ben to another.