INDIA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
The Dukes ball, once prized for its pronounced seam and lasting hardness, now finds itself under an unkind light © Getty
Through the course of two protracted, high-scoring Tests in Birmingham and Leeds, one quiet subplot has refused to go away from the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. It’s the recurring procession of players walking up to the umpire with the match ball. Some go alone. Others take turns, perhaps hoping a fresh face might make the case stronger. At times, they even try their luck with the other umpire. But each time the ball slips through the metal gauge, the answer is the same: it’s within limits, play on.
This isn’t new. But the frequency and early timing of these appeals, sometimes as early as the 16th over, has drawn fresh scrutiny. Especially from teams struggling to coax movement or bounce from a ball that seems to grow weary far too soon.
At Headingley, it spilled over a little. Rishabh Pant, animated and exasperated, flung the ball away after yet another rejected appeal for a replacement. The moment earned him the match referee’s attention, and a sanction. But it was also a revealing glimpse into a growing frustration among players across conditions.
The Dukes ball, once prized for its pronounced seam and lasting hardness, now finds itself under an unkind light. “It’s definitely irritating for the players,” Pant admitted on the eve of the Lord’s Test. “When it becomes softer, sometimes it’s not doing too much. But as soon as [they] change the ball, it’s starting to do enough. As a batsman, you’ve got to keep adjusting to it but at the same time, I feel it’s not good for cricket.”
The concern has followed the ball across continents. In the Caribbean too, where the Dukes is used, teams have found it losing hardness too quickly. What once defined this ball, its seam, its bite, its longevity, seems to be fading.
England captain Ben Stokes floated a suggestion. Perhaps the tool of measurement itself – the gauge – needs revisiting. After all, the Dukes is hand-stitched, unlike the machine-crafted Kookaburra. Shouldn’t its assessment be tailored too?
“Whenever we have touring teams visiting, there is an issue with the balls going soft and completely out of shape. I don’t even think the rings that we use are Dukes rings… it isn’t ideal. But you have to deal with it,” Stokes said.
“If you feel the ball has gone out of shape then you check it with the umpire. If it goes through the rings, it goes through the rings and you crack on. Hopefully eventually it goes that badly out of shape that you are able to change it. Every bowling team seems to struggle with it, and it seemed a big issue last week at Edgbaston. If it fits through we keep going, if it doesn’t we get a new one.”
India’s vice-captain, too, called for change, not in method, but in threshold. “I think the gauge should be the same… but it would be better if it was smaller. But the balls are giving so much trouble. Definitely, I feel it’s a big problem. Because the ball is getting out of shape. That has never happened [like this] before.”
It’s not an issue that has surfaced only this summer. But the chorus is louder now, especially in combination with the flat, unyielding pitches that have propped up Bazball without offering the bowlers much in return. At Edgbaston, England were 84 for 5 against the new ball, only for Jamie Smith and Harry Brook to stitch together a 303-run stand that barely featured a false stroke.
In a game built on fine margins, a ball that gives up too soon tilts the balance long before the contest has truly begun.
© Cricbuzz
