Ashes 2023 produced some high-quality cricket action and showed yet again why Test is considered the ultimate format of cricket. While Australia had taken a 2-0 lead in the five-match series, England managed to come back from behind to draw the series 2-2. There were moments of drama and controversy too in the series with the Jonny Bairstow stumping controversy being the talk of the cricketing fraternity from the second Test match but the one which has been in the news recently is the ball-change incident which happened in the fifth Test.
Notably, no players were involved in this incident. While England did request for a ball change after 37 overs in the final innings of the match, Ponting felt that the ball which was used to replace the ball being used up until that time was shinier and helped England gain an advantage as it swung a bit more. Images that have surfaced on social media also tend to suggest the same as the ball in play until the 37th over appeared rougher and older than the ball which replaced it which had a tinge of shine still on it.
"The biggest concern I have is the big discrepancy in the condition of the ball that was chosen to replace. There's no way in the world you can even look at those two balls there and say in any way are they comparable. If you are going to change the ball, you want to make sure that you get it right, so it is as close as you possibly can to the one that you're changing it from. Now if you have a look in that box, there weren't too many older-condition balls in there. There were some older ones that were picked up, the umpires looked at that and threw them back," Ponting said on Sky Sports while talking about the incident.
"The conditions were better for bowling this morning. But what I saw last night, that ball there, I'll put my hand up and say I've got absolutely no doubt at all that that ball would not have done anywhere near as much as what that one did this morning. Double the amount of movement this morning from yesterday afternoon, seam movement and swing. I think it's a huge blunder that needs to be investigated," he added.
To put things into perspective, Australia were 126/0 at the end of 36 overs needing 384 for win but after the ball change, they ended up getting bowled out for 334, leaving Australian fans with the question what if the ball hadn't been changed or would have been changed with a ball which was equally old and rough. No clarification from the ICC or the match officials have been issued yet regarding the ball change.