Australia's plan to use English cricket balls in the Sheffield Shield next season is in doubt because – like so many English imports to Australia – they behave differently here.

Cricket Australia announced in March that it intended to use balls made by English manufacturer Dukes in the second half of the season from next year, to better prepare Australian players for tours of England, where the batsmen have been confounded by swing and have not won since 2001.

Dukes balls are darker and harder than the Australian Kookaburra, and swing more and longer – in England.

But when trialled over the last four summers in the Futures League in Australia, and in the under 19 and under 17 championships, a problem emerged. "They had too much lacquer on them and didn't wear enough," said Australia's high performance manager Pat Howard, "so we didn't get the value of seeing how the older ball performed."