Bengaluru, July 30: In 2015, after England won the Ashes 3-2 at home, a lot was said about the Dukes ball's influence in the series.
It was even predicted that the Australian bowlers' failure in matching their English counterparts' capacity to exploit conditions with the Dukes cherry would force former Kangaroo skipper Ricky Ponting to recommend using the same ball in Australia's domestic cricket.
But England weren't complaining and would fancy another Trent Bridge-like morning as they had in that series when they bundled Australia out for just 60.
This time, the visitors are not too far behind. Australian media has already predicted that the Dukes could favour the tourists this time since their country's bowlers have more experience now in using the same ball.
Australia have given enough practice to their A team in playing with Dukes ball and their players have played in county as well. So, experience-wise, Australia will not be too far behind in terms of experience of using the Dukes ball in this Ashes.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan tweeted about the same and mentioning the bowling line-ups that both the teams have, he said with the Dukes ball of 2018 still around (yes, there are some technical differences in the built of the ball from 2018 and 2019, even if small) the upcoming Ashes could be a bowlers' show.
Weekend Ashes thoughts .... Woakes,Broad,Archer,Stokes,Curran,Anderson,Pattinson,Cummins,Starc,Siddle,Hazlewood...... 2018 Dukes ball ..... GOOD LUCK BATSMAN ... !!! #OnOn ... Cannot wait for Thursday .... #Ashes
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) July 27, 2019
England beat India 4-1 in a Test series at home around the same time last year and the ball that was used in that series will be in for this year's Ashes as well.
The 2019 Ashes is predicted to be a show of the seamers with both teams having plenty of them. While England have two old war horses in James Anderson and Stuart Broad besides the likes of Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes, Ben Stokes and Sam Curran, Australia have some real force in Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Peter Siddle, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson.