NEW DELHI: Apart from Jasprit Bumrah’s fiery spell, Joe Root’s century, and Brydon Carse’s gritty fightback, Day 2 of the third Test at Lord’s had an unusual recurring subplot — Team India’s repeated attempts to get the ball changed. Shubman Gill, clearly annoyed, was seen multiple times approaching the umpires, pointing at the ball and urging them to inspect it. This led to a repeated process: the umpires passing the ball through the ring gauge, sometimes approving a change, sometimes not. This routine unfolded several times during the first session alone, raising questions about the persistent shape issues with the Dukes ball.These actions didn’t go unnoticed, especially by former England players and sections of the English media, who openly criticised India’s conduct.Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad didn’t mince words on social media:
Poll
Should there be a penalty for teams that waste time requesting ball changes?
“The cricket ball should be like a fine wicketkeeper — barely noticed. We are having to talk about the ball too much because it is such an issue & being changed virtually every innings. Unacceptable… Dukes have a problem. They need to fix it. A ball should last 80 overs. Not 10.”
Chief Cricket Writer for The Telegraph, Scyld Berry, also took a dig at the Indian team and even suggested a penalty for time-wasting:“The on-field umpires, every 10 overs, put the ball through the gauge – and if it does not go through, then they change it if either side wants. The fielding side can ask for the ball to be gauged at any time – and the present crop do seem to be losing shape and going soft too soon – but if the ball goes through the umpire’s gauge, and therefore there is nothing wrong with it, they should be given a five-run penalty for time-wasting.“Former England captain Nasser Hussain, speaking on Sky Sports, said the issue runs deeper:“The first thing is that there’s a serious issue with the Dukes ball,” Hussain said.“Both captains talked about it before the game. We’ve seen it in this game: in this session, it’s been changed twice. We’ve seen it in the last few years, really, the Dukes ball going out of shape.“The second point at play here is that I think the ball is changed too often. I think we’re getting a bit precious about cricket balls. In the history of the game, the cricket ball gets old, and the cricket ball gets soft. I think we’re getting a bit addicted to having the perfect cricket ball for 80 overs.“The third thing at play is that they got through in that first hour and Bumrah was unplayable … I looked up from my laptop at the back of comms box and went, ‘They’re changing the ball: why would you change the ball that is doing something to a random box of balls?’ You know nothing about that, you know everything about this … I get why they’re getting upset – it did look older, it did look softer — but why change? Why take the gamble? I thought that was a real bizarre thing to do when you’ve got something, especially in this time when the Dukes ball is so all over the place, when you’ve got something, stick to it. They didn’t.”
