India and England players have raised concerns over the quality of the Dukes ball being used in the ongoing Test series. The second and third Tests saw the red cheery going out of shape far too soon, prompting visuals of players from both sides asking the umpire to change the ball.

Ahead of the fifth and final match at The Oval, the tourists have reportedly lodged a complaint with the ICC match referee regarding the ball-change protocol as well as purported "preferential treatment".

The instance cited specifically is apparently from the third Test at Lord's, The Indian Express reported on Thursday (July 31).

According to the report, the second new ball had to be replaced after going out of shape in just 10 overs when England were batting during their first innings at Lord’s. However, the ball provided turned out to be 30-35 overs old.

The ball-change rule states the replacement ball should be as old as the original one, but the umpires reportedly told the Indian team there was no 10-overs-old ball available.

“At Lord’s, after about 10 overs, the Dukes ball lost its shape, something that has been happening so often in the series. The ball failed to pass through the rings that the umpires carry on the field to check if the ball is uniformly spherical.

"However, the umpires didn’t have a ball that was 10 overs old, so the Indian team at a crucial moment of the match got a ball that was 30-35 overs old. Check the scoreboard to see how the game changed after that. The bowlers lost their swing and England scored with ease,” an Indian team official quoted as saying in the report.

The ball change did hurt India as they had got three crucial wickets with the new ball, which was changed after 10 overs. But once the ball was changed, things got better for the hosts. From 271/7, England reached 387 on the back of an 84-run stand between Jamie Smith (51) and Brydon Carse (56).

“When you ask for a ball change, you aren’t told about the age of the replacement you will be getting. At Lord’s, we weren’t told that the replacement would be 30 to 35 overs old. If we were told, we would have continued with the deformed ball that was used for 10 overs. The ICC needs to intervene. This rule needs to be changed,” the official added.

The Indian official also talked about the process of picking balls ahead of the Test and how India were at the receiving end there as well. He also claimed that there were cases of the fourth umpire entering the Indian dressing room with a box that had just one ball with a darker shade of red, which tends to swing more.

“I am not alleging anything, but when we asked for the darker ball, we were told that was the ball England had selected as their second new ball. The right thing would be to have this ball selected in the match referee’s room and not in the dressing room with the local umpire as the only official present,” said the match official.

(The Indian Express Inputs)