Mustafiz gets Dukes ball tips from Donald

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman is learning to use the Dukes ball from pace bowling coach Allan Donald in the training nets of the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua.

Dukes is a cricket-gears manufacturing company based in England. Dukes balls are used in Test matches, top-level first-class cricket, and most premier-level leagues in England.

Australia use Kookaburra balls in their home series and domestic cricket, while the sub-continent countries mostly use cricket balls manufactured by Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) for international and domestic matches.

All the balls are different in terms of shape, size, seam, and lacquer and carry different characteristics.

Mustafiz last played a Test match in February last year, and since then, he has been busy playing limited-overs cricket.

The left-arm pacer was brought back to the Test side as Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam, regular players in the longer version, are not available due to injury.

Mustafiz does not possess the experience of playing longer-version cricket in the Caribbeans or England. Therefore Donald is giving him lessons on how to use the Dukes ball effectively.

“It’s a change from the Kookaburra to the Dukes ball, the ball that I’m very, very accustomed to playing for Warwickshire in the County cricket and Test cricket in the United Kingdom,” the South African said in a video message posted by the Bangladesh Cricket Board in Facebook.

“It’s a ball with a very proud seam. It’s going to take a lot of work to be able to get used to this as we’ve seen before,” Donald said about the difference between the Dukes ball with other variants.

In the absence of Taskin and Shoriful, Mustafiz will be one of the key bowlers for Bangladesh in their West Indies tour, where pacers usually dominate.

Donald took Mustafiz out of the practice match against Cricket West Indies President’s XI and hit the nets for a training session with the Dukes ball on Saturday (local).

“I’ve just had a session with Fizz (Mustafizur Rahman). This is the first time he has bowled since the IPL. I just told him a little bit about the ball. It’s also his first time with the Dukes ball. He just changed his grip subtly, and he feels it’s coming out pretty well,” said Donald.

“So, first little step out there against the West Indies President’s XI, and we had a very good work out there with the Dukes ball,” added the pace bowling coach.

Donald played eight Test matches in England and five in the Caribbeans. The number is pretty low as South Africa was banned due to their apartheid policy, but he has an illustrious career with English County teams Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Donald was also the bowling coach of the England cricket team, making him an ideal teacher for the Bangladesh pacers to learn the tricks of the Dukes ball, which will come in handy on this tour.

The first Test between hosts West Indies and Bangladesh will start on June 16 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua.