From 2018 to 2025: Gill hopes to take measure of Dukes balls'' changing behaviour

Birmingham, Jul 1 (PTI) The rapidly evolving behaviour of Dukes, including the ball going soft 40 overs onwards, has created a major challenge for the Shubman Gill-led India in England.

Gill has been getting inputs from the likes of KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, who have been to England multiple times, on how the Dukes has evolved in the last 7-8 years.

At Leeds, India missed the services of a second spinner on day five as England made short work of the 371-run target to go 1-0 up in the five-match series.

India needed their pacers to strike in the run chase but, barring Bumrah, none was able to make inroads. By the time the new ball was due, the game was as good as over.

On Tuesday, Gill spoke about his preference for an extra spinner in the 40-60 over phase over a pacer who would find it tough to contain the aggressive England batters.

“I have spoken to some of the players who were part of the 2018-19 series and they said the balls were slightly different in that series.

Even in the 2021 series as well, the ball was doing a little bit more. The ball stopped doing between 40-60 (overs) but then 60-80, the ball started doing again a little bit,” said the captain.

“And in this match that we played and even in WTC that we saw, after the 40 overs or 45 overs, the ball becomes quite soft.

“So even if there is something happening from the ball because it's soft, it's not the carry or there's not enough from the ball where you keep creating chances from the ball.

“We felt that it is easier to contain the runs for spinners than for fast bowlers, especially when the ball is old. In these conditions, the ball does not swing as much after 30-40 overs,” he added.

Sighting the red cherry, a problem area ============================= India dropped as many as seven catches at Leeds and that hurt them badly. Gill hoped that the worst is behind the team on the fielding front and the players can sight the ball better going ahead.

“This is one factor that the ball swings behind the wicket. You must have seen here that there are many problems in sighting the ball, especially when the fielders are standing in the square behind the wicket.

“Their team and our team, when there are stands behind the wicket or there are visuals behind the wicket, sometimes the ball is in sight very late. But we all know that it is difficult to sight the ball and the ball swings behind the wicket.

“It is very rare that 5-7 catches are missed in very few matches. Hopefully, it will not happen in the future,” added Gill. PTI BS UNG