Ashes 2023: Usman Khawaja has expressed his frustration at the ball change that proved pivotal in England’s final-day comeback in the fifth Ashes Test at the Kia Oval, calling on the ICC to examine the process going forward.
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Khawaja and David Warner had made steady progress in hauling in a big chase of 384, putting on a first-wicket stand of 140 and each making half-centuries. However, a ball-change in the penultimate over of the penultimate day precipitated a significant swing in fortunes.
Khawaja had been hit on the helmet by a Mark Wood bouncer, with the blow requiring a concussion test, and taking a chunk out of the ball as well. A replacement box of balls was called for, but as England made in-roads on the final morning, with Chris Woakes and Wood combining for three quick wickets, several Australian pundits complained that the ‘new’ ball was moving significantly more than the ‘old’ ball, and that it looked in much better condition than the original ball.
Ricky Ponting criticised the umpires for their choice of a replacement, and Khawaja said he raised the issue with the umpires immediately.
“I walked straight up to Kumar [Dharmasena] straight away, I said that ball is nothing like the one we’ve been playing with,” he said, speaking after England wrapped up a 49-run win. “I mean, I could see writing on it. It felt harder than any ball I’ve faced throughout this whole Ashes series, to be honest, and I’ve opened the batting against the new ball every single time. It just hit the bat so hard. I know Woody was bowling, but I’ve faced Woody before. I said, you’ve gone from an old reversing ball to a brand new ball. It looked like it was about eight overs old, swinging conventionally and hitting the bat hard.”
Khawaja’s protestations continued in the following day, and he suggested that if that was the best option available to the umpires, England should have been forced to continue with the old, damaged ball. “I actually asked Joel [Wilson] again today, I said, ‘How are we using this ball right now? It’s so new.’ And he said, ‘Look, there was nothing else in the box’. Personally I think if there’s nothing else in the ball that can match the ball you have, you can’t really change it.”
Australia lost three quick wickets on the fifth morning, including that of Khawaja, and while Steve Smith and Travis Head rebuilt, a burst of four wickets in four overs from Moeen Ali and Woakes put England on the path to victory. Khawaja felt that the changed ball was the cause of both mini-collapses. “It’s a bit frustrating as a batting unit, because we worked our backsides off for 35 or 36 overs or whatever it was when they changed the ball,” he said. “As an opener, you work so hard to get through there and then you’re facing a new ball again. That ball was 95 overs into it and it was still swinging, hooping, bouncing.”
Khawaja has already made one significant intervention with cricket’s ruling body in recent weeks, successfully lobbying the ICC to reduce the penalties for bad over-rates in Test cricket, and to make these penalties harder to incur, following severe fines handed down to the Australia team. He called on the ICC to look into the matter and “improve that ball-changing process. “Unfortunately that’s the hand you get dealt sometimes in cricket. It might not feel fair, but hopefully there’s some learnings out of it, and hopefully the ICC can look at it and try to improve that ball-changing process.”
England aren’t the only team to benefit from an unscheduled ball-change this series, with Australia making in-roads with a swinging ‘new’ ball in the fourth innings at Headingley.
