The ball controversy incident that occurred during the final Ashes Test at The Oval continues to generate headlines. The Australian squad was unhappy with the ball alteration in the final innings. The investigation now begins with this orb. The Duke ball replaced at the Oval is reportedly five years old. The manufacturer of the Duke ball, British Cricket Balls Ltd, will investigate.

Australia went into bat with a target of 384 runs to win the last Test at the Oval. Pat Cummins' team also scored 135 runs without a wicket on the fourth day. In the 37th over of the innings, Mark Wood's bouncer hit Khawaja's helmet. At that time, Khawaja had to undergo a concussion test. The ball hit the Australian opener's helmet so hard that both the helmet and the ball had to be replaced. England got swing at the changed Duke ball. It has been claimed that the turn of the match has turned with that incident.

Australia opener Usman Khawaja said, “I walked straight up to Kumar (umpire Kumar Dharmasena) and said 'that ball looks nothing like the one we were playing with.....I can see writing on it. It felt harder than any ball I've faced in this Ashes series – and I've opened the batting against the new ball every single time.”

British media Mail Online reported that Indian businessman Dilip Jajodia, the owner of the Duke ball manufacturing company, is also looking for an answer to the incident. Jajodia does not deny the allegations that the changed ball is five years old. Talking about how the ball from the 2018 or 2019 Ashes series ended up in the umpires' ball box in this series, Jajodia claimed that such a thing 'is highly unlikely to happen, but cannot be completely ruled out.'

Dilip Jajodia told the Australian media 'News Corp’, "I can't imagine they would risk putting a ball in there with a different date on it. Frankly the match referee should be on top of it. We do bang that number in quite hard, so even if the gold comes off the ball is imprinted. It wouldn't be easy to get rid of it. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's not likely. I'm going to investigate myself, because it affects me … my name is at stake.”

England beat Australia by 49 runs at the Oval to draw 2-2 and end the Ashes series.