In the ongoing Ashes series, Australia’s performance has
been nightmarish so far. At Cardiff, Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, they were
crushed by a formidable English attack. The Australian batsmen were dumbfounded
against the moving ball and thus, messed up with their antipodean technique and
then their minds. The Dukes ball, which the English pacers are using in this
year’s Ashes series proved to be the wrecker-in-chief.
After witnessing Australia’s horrendous display, former
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said, “One thing I am going to recommend as
soon as I get home is that we actually change the balls we use in Australia. I
think we should be using Dukes balls in Australia now. I think it's been
highlighted enough times that we struggle when the ball swings and seams. You
go back two, three years ago when I was playing Shield cricket, Hobart got
heavily criticized for doing too much, but I batted there, but you could still
make runs”.
Australia will tour Bangladesh in October this year. At
present, Bangladesh can’t be taken lightly and they are a unit which plays to
win. The current Bangladeshi bowling attack, be it in One-day internationals or
Tests, is not dependent on the spinners anymore. Promising youngsters like
Mustafizur Rahman, a rejuvenated Rubel Hossain, energetic Taskin Ahmed, and
work-horse Mohammad Shahid have added enough vim to the Bangladeshi attack. Gone
are the days when a pace bowler would come and bowl with the new ball only to
fulfill the formalities and as soon as the shine goes away, the stage was
dominated by the left-arm spinners. In the course of time, the Bangladeshi pace
bowlers have become potent enough.
As Bangladesh have the pacers to hit the jackpot then why
not use the Dukes ball against Australia?
In the Bangladeshi domestic arena, the Kookaburra and SG
balls are used more keeping in mind the conditions and the presence of spin
bowlers more than the pacers . Moreover, it has become an unofficial rule in
Bangladesh cricket that, whenever a team tours here, either the Kookaburra or
SG ball is used. If the visitors are from the subcontinent, then the Kookaburra
ball is chosen while the SG balls are used against the non-subcontinental
teams.
Moreover, there is a school of thought that, the Dukes ball
is not effective in dry conditions and placid or hard tracks. Thus, it is less
effective in the subcontinent, Australia, South Africa and West Indies. But in
the recently concluded series against England, Curtly Ambrose, the Caribbean
bowling coach, has shown how the Dukes ball can be effective in dry conditions
and flat tracks. The Caribbean pacers were highly benefited by the Dukes ball.
The Dukes brand, owned by an Indian Dilip Jajodia, produces
thousands of hand-stitched balls every year, which are used in England at Test
and domestic level. It is also supplied in the West Indies. The Dukes ball is
hand-stitched. According to Jajodia, a hand-stitched ball has six rows of
stitching. But instead of the outer two seams being purely decorative as, on a
machine stitched ball, all six rows hold the cork ball together, creating a
tension so that when the ball hits the deck it moves more and holds its shape
better. The Dukes brand produces two varieties of balls, one variety of Dukes
ball is manufactured for the swinging and seaming English conditions while the
other variety is for dry and abrasive wickets.
The Dukes ball doesn’t swing from the start, but as soon as
the lacquer used on the ball wears off, it starts to swing conventionally. In
the swifter conditions, it moves prodigiously and the larger seams are needed
for the slower conditions. The Dukes ball is a highly productive in generating
reverse swing. The Kookaburra ball generates swing when it’s new, but after
35-40 overs, it loses its shine, becomes softer and more helpful for the
batsmen. Whereas, the SG balls hardly swing and aids the spinners a lot. SG
ball is quite batting friendly as well.
Bangladesh might opt for the SG ball against Australia, but
they must not forget of how their pacers struck gold against India and South
Africa and keeping in mind the benefits of the pacers and the weakness of
Australia, Bangladesh should start thinking about using the Dukes ball. The
kind of pace bowlers Bangladesh have, the use of the Dukes ball might prove
handy against Australia. The hierarchy of Bangladesh cricket should think about
this matter.
Note: This article has been published in Sportskeeda on 11/08/2015 Why Bangladesh should use the Dukes ball against Australia
Thank You
Note: This article has been published in Sportskeeda on 11/08/2015 Why Bangladesh should use the Dukes ball against Australia
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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