Ball-Change Controversy During 5th Ashes Test: Ricky Ponting Calls For Investigation

The Ashes 2023 was indeed a riveting series with both sides, England and Australia, putting up a fierce contest between bat and ball. As the series witness some intense action, it also saw some controversial calls. (More Cricket News)

Ever since the Jonny Bairstow run-out incident took place, the dismissal has garnered a lot of talk for most part of the series. However, on the final day of the 5th Ashes Test at The Oval, another controversy seemed to have taken place. Former Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting and opener Usman Khawaja were not pleased with the 'ball being changed on the final day of the 5th Ashes Test.

During the lunch session of the 5th Test, Ricky Ponting voiced his displeasure on-air. During the coverage on Sky Sports, Ponting said that there should be an investigation as to why the ball was changed on the final day.

"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.

"There's no way in the world you can look at those two balls there and say in any way that they're comparable"

The former Australia skipper felt the replaced ball would not have assisted the English pacers as much as the 'new ball' did for England.

"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.

"That is a huge moment in this game, potentially a huge moment in the Test match, and something I think actually has to be investigated... whether there was the right condition of balls in the box, or the umpires have just picked one out of there that they think will be okay to use," Ponting asserted

Post the defeat at The Oval, Australian opener Usman Khawaja too voiced his opinion about the changed ball. Khawaja said that he even informed the umpire Kumar Dharmasena about the same but it was of no help.

"We started off really well. The big thing was that ball. As soon as they changed that ball, the first over they changed that ball. I knew straight away this ball was very different. I went straight up to Kumar and said 'how old is this ball you've given them because it feels like it's about eight overs old.' You could see the writing on both sides and it hit my bat so hard.

"I've opened in every single innings this Ashes series and I haven't felt the ball hit my bat as hard as that ball felt when it hit my bat. So I said to the boys even coming into today (fifth day) to be careful, this new ball, it's going to be tricky. It's going to be a lot harder than that other ball," he said.