Dukes ball primed to add new element to women's Test

Next week will be the first time that Heather Knight's side have used the red Dukes, with the Kookaburra having been used in previous Test matches

England Women enlisted Somerset seamers Peter Siddle and Jack Brooks on Friday morning to discuss the Dukes ball ahead of next week's Test against South Africa.

It will be the first time that Heather Knight's side have used the red Dukes, with the Kookaburra having been used in previous Test matches.

Ahead of England's Ashes Test against Australia in January, Katherine Brunt railed against that fact, with the Kookaburra traditionally losing its hardness more quickly and swinging through the air for less time than its Dukes equivalent.

Speaking on Friday, Kate Cross explained that England have so far been bowling with a separate batch of balls to those being used at Taunton next week, but that the difference from the Kookaburra was already being felt.

"It does swing for longer, which is great as a bowler," said Cross. "There's that period with the Kookaburra in Test cricket where the ball goes a bit soft and dead and it's easier for the batters to cash in. I think what we've found is there isn't going to be that phase with the Dukes. Or, if there is, it isn’t going to be as long as with the Kookaburra.

"It's something that I'm really looking forward to; we've been crying out for the Dukes ball for a while now, so the fact that we've got the opportunity to play with it is hopefully going to be something that works in the bowlers' favour for once."

Siddle, the former Australia fast bowler, is one of Somerset's overseas bowler and has plenty of experience with both balls, while Brooks has taken all but five of his 500 first-class wickets in England.

^{Peter Siddle is two short of 700 first-class wickets (Harry Trump/Getty Images)}

Despite her Test retirement, Brunt has also remained with the squad to work on increasing her bowling loads ahead of the white-ball summer. The 36-year-old has been bowling with the red ball to prepare her colleagues for the test of facing South Africa's much-vaunted attack, which includes both Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail.

Her absence – and that of Anya Shrubsole – theoretically makes Cross the senior bowler among a cartel of seamers certain to feature at least two debutantes. But she played down that prospect; despite her greater international experience, even Cross, 30, has only made five Test appearances.

"It's not like I'm James Anderson with 160-odd games," she said. "I take experience with a pinch of salt when it comes to red-ball cricket in the women's game."

Only 143 women's Tests have ever taken place, just five of which have come since 2015. South Africa haven't played in one since November 2014.

At the beginning of June, ICC chair Greg Barclay admitted that he did not foresee women's Test cricket being "part of the landscape moving forward to any real extent".

In response, Cross echoed comments made by Heather Knight, her captain, who described Barclay's words as saddening.

"It's disappointing from our point of view," said Cross. "It's no different for women growing up: our pinnacle is Test cricket – that's what I was playing in the garden when I was a kid, playing my own little Ashes series with my brother and sister.

^{Cross survived the last delivery of the Ashes Test to preserve a draw for England (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)}

"To hear comments like that from the powers-that-be is obviously disappointing and, I think, from my point of view the most disappointing thing is how exciting our Test cricket has been when we have played it. If you give us the opportunity to play more of that and learn the game quicker by playing more of it, you'd hopefully see an even better spectacle.

"I think what we've been doing recently, being able to incorporate a Test match within our white-ball series, has been something that's worked really well and hopefully we can keep pushing that and just keep playing a bit more of it and changing the opinions of the people who are making those decisions."

She added that her role at the end of the Ashes Test in January, blocking out for a thrilling draw, had only confirmed that sentiment.

"I remember my brother texting me afterwards to say that it was one of the things that we played out in the garden, having to save the game," she recalled. "To real-life do that was pretty special.

"Looking back and seeing how the men have been playing their Test cricket recently, I keep thinking if we could have gone for the win. I'm sure me and Sophie [Ecclestone] could have potentially done that, but in the context of the Ashes points system we needed to keep ourselves alive.

"But it makes you want to play more of it. If we'd had a three or four-match Test series in Australia, it could have been pretty special to see how we could have played out more matches and those storylines that develop through series."

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