For the first time, India Cricket Team won’t be playing with Dukes balls in England. WTC Final 2023 will be played with Kookaburra red cherries as both India and Australia have decided to use the Australian variant of red ball. India vs Australia Final starts on June 7 at Oval. Follow WTC Final LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
When India faced New Zealand in the 2021 WTC Final, ICC used Dukes balls. However, of late, County teams have complained of degrading quality of Red Dukes.
Perhaps, that is the reason why both teams have decided to go with Red Kookaburra. Ricky Ponting on Friday confirmed that ICC has given the nod to use red Kookaburra instead of Dukes.
Last year when New Zealand toured England, Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson too complained about Dukes as it lost shape too soon and became softer, losing swing.
Dilip Jajodia, the owner of the company that produces Dukes ball, told Indian Express that there might be some technical problem in the process of tanning.
“My guess is, there’s some technical problem in the process of tanning which goes back months. We actually still haven’t identified what the problem is. Because the process of tanning and colouration is very important and if something goes wrong, if somebody adds a certain percentage of chemical that’s not quite right, the dye comes from another manufacturer; all these little things affect natural raw material,” he said.
While it is unclear if both teams have preferred Kookaburra to Dukes due to the quality issues, Indian pacers have already begun practice with the red balls during IPL 2023 training sessions. As for Australians, some are busy playing County cricket while the rest are preparing on their own. The entire Australia team will assemble in London by next week while the first batch of Indian team will leave for London on May 23.
Ricky Ponting said the final would be between India’s top order and Australia’s pace attack.
“I think it’ll be India’s top order against Australia’s fast bowling, It’s a bit of a mouth-watering thought going forward. Generally, we think about the battles between India’s spinners and Australia’s batters. But will that be negated by the wicket at The Oval? Normally the wickets that I’ve played on The Oval have started as really good batting wickets, and actually have offered a little bit to the spinners as the game’s going on,” Ricky Ponting said at an ICC curtain raiser event on Friday.
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