Find Out How The Dukes Ball Will Play A Crucial Role In WTC Final: Team India have had the upper hand on Australia over their last four bilateral series, with India winning all of them by 2-1 margin, both home and away. However, the challenge is completely different now in the WTC Final 2023: this one-off Test match will be played in English conditions, at The Oval in London, in much more helpful seam-friendly conditions in early June.
The Oval has never hosted a Test match in June, so the Indian team also wouldn’t have much idea of the type of surface and conditions they should expect over the course of five days of the WTC Final.
Many are considering Australia as favorites to start with in the World Test C 2023 Final because of their intimidating pace trioka of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Scott Boland, and, to makes matters worse for the Indian batters, they will be bowling with the Dukes ball in English conditions.
It has been confirmed that the Duke ball will be used in the 2023 World Test Championship Final and not SG or Kookaburra as is done in the home Tests of India and Australia respectively.
Photo: AFP/Indranil Mukherjee
How is Dukes ball different from SG and Kookaburra?
Both the Dukes and SG are hand-stitched balls that help the bowlers for longer periods of time compared to the Kookaburra ball, which is machine-stitched, and its seam goes flat after some time making it more batsman-friendly.
How is playing with Dukes going to impact the WTC Final 2023?
Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun has, in no unclear terms, asserted that the bowlers will have a bigger say in the World Test Championship Final between India and Australia because of the Dukes being used in English conditions.
“I think all the bowlers enjoy bowling with the Dukes’ ball, especially in English conditions,” Bharat Arun told The Indian Express.
Dilip Jajodia, the owner of the company that manufactures the Dukes ball, has given Australia slight edge in the contest over India.
Explaining how the Dukes ball swings for longer, Jajodia said to Indian Express, “The seam on the hand-stitched ball is more prominent and hence gives a slightly different shape. The raised seam enables movement through the air similar to the rudder on a ship which enables movement in water,”
