INDIA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
The fuss around the ball, it’s quality, the shape and softness continued on Day 2 at Lord’s © Getty
And then there was more ball drama on the second day of the Lord’s Test. India had a ball changed after just 10.3 overs because it went out of shape and failed the ring test. The ball they gave up had swung 2.6 times more than the one that replaced it – and had already brought Jasprit Bumrah three wickets in a burst of 14 deliveries early in the morning. India captain Shubman Gill clearly felt the new ball wasn’t quite like-for-like, sparking yet another round of what’s become a familiar sight this series: both teams remonstrating with the umpires.
Funnily enough, even that replacement ball didn’t last. Eight overs later, it too needed changing, casting a harsher light on the state of the this batch of balls. Out on the concourses, Dilip Jajodia, Managing Director of Dukes, was seen offering explanations: powerful bats, an unusually dry summer, and the inevitable human element in hand-stitched manufacturing.
On the internet, legendary former England fast bowler Stuart Broad pointed out in a Tweet, that the ball should be like a good wicketkeeper: part of the game, but never the story. Yet it was the story again in the press conferences that followed, where two of the game’s biggest names – Jasprit Bumrah and Joe Root – opted to choose their words carefully, unwilling to go too far for fear of a sanction. But Root did have a suggestion to curb the cycle of ball changes:
“I personally think that if you want to keep getting the ball changed then each team gets three challenges every 80 overs and that’s it, if you want to get it changed,” Root said. “But the rings have to be the right size, not too big.
“That would be a nice way of compromising and saying it’s not all on the manufacturer. Sometimes these things happen but you can’t just keep asking and wasting time and slowing the game down at the same time.”
The former England captain, fresh off his 37th Test ton that day, also urged teams to adapt and play on: “I don’t know the ins and outs of how they make it [the Dukes ball],” he said. “I do know that they’re handmade so you’re never going to get two balls exactly the same. I do think this summer has been a bit of an anomaly for us. We’re not used to getting this much sun and this much heat and squares as hard and outfields as firm so whether that plays a part or not [I don’t know].
“It’s one of those things where if the balls are going out of shape, you change them and you don’t make a big deal out of it. I don’t think it’s the end of the world. I think it adds a different dynamic to the game and you’ve got to be skilful enough to adapt to the changes, whether it stops swinging or starts swinging or does a little bit more.”
But there have been knock-on effects. Frequent ball changes have contributed to a poor overrate. Only 75 overs were bowled on the second day, meaning the Lord’s Test was already 23 overs short even with both days extended by half an hour. Root, again, was pragmatic:
“I don’t want to get myself in trouble by trying to rewrite the thing but I think that’s one way of policing the ball thing,” Root said. “In terms of over rates it can be quite difficult on a day like today. We’re not used to this are we? Thirty [degrees] in England feels like 45 elsewhere. But I guess just try and keep on top of it as much as you can.”
As for Bumrah, he couldn’t recall any ball-change fuss on his previous tours to England in 2018 or 2021-22. “The ball changes, I don’t really control that,” Bumrah said. “Obviously I don’t really want to lose out on money because I worked very hard, I bowled a lot of overs, so I don’t want to say any controversial statement and get my match fees deducted. But we were bowling with the ball that we were given and that’s how it is. We can’t change it, we can’t fight it. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes you get a bad ball, that’s how it is.”
© Cricbuzz
