Australia were doctoring the ball against England in the 2017-18 Ashes according to the latest revelations from Usman Khawaja’s whistle-blowing autobiography.Within the chapter of the newly-released Sabr that covers the explosive claim that all of the Australian team were in on the sandpaper scandal in South Africa eight years ago, Khawaja goes on to reveal that ball tampering was embedded in the dressing room during the 4-0 series win over England that preceded it.England’s players suspected that Australia had altered the condition of the ball in the third Test at Perth when despite heavy rain, the home attack managed to extract extravagant reverse swing to dismiss Joe Root’s side on the final day.Reverse swing is most typically generated when the dry nature of the playing square scuffs up one side of the ball and the other is polished vigorously by the players on their trousers, using a combination of that friction and the application of sweat to create a smooth sheen.However, Khawaja reveals that an attack featuring Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood plus off-spinner Nathan Lyon had found other ways to get the ball moving off the straight in Adelaide and Perth that winter.‘On day five, Starcy bowled that unforgettable ball to James Vince off the crack,’ he wrote. Former Australia star Usman Khawaja claims all of the Australia team knew about the ball-tampering during the 2017-18 Ashes series‘We were reverse swinging it late on day five. Actually, we were reverse swinging the ball the game before too – except it was much tougher, because it was the pink ball.‘But we – and I say ‘we’, because were a team, whether you did the deed or not – had worked out that, if we raised the flaps up on the quarter seam on that ball, it was almost like it had a rudder on it and it’d start reverse swinging.‘And before you start going at me, calm down. The whole world was doing whatever little they could to try and reverse swing the ball.’Despite Khawaja’s caveat that such practice was commonplace, under Law 41.3 of the Laws of Cricket, players are strictly prohibited from taking any deliberate action that artificially alters the physical condition of the match ball.Either prising up, scratching or deteriorating the quarter seam – the secondary seam on the ball that runs at a right angle to the prominent stitched one, and there to secure the leather pieces together – with fingernails, thumbs or foreign objects is illegal and punishable by match officials. A player caught in such an act can face a substantial fine and/or suspension.If the quarter seam is raised, it can create a tiny flap of leather on the rough side of the ball, which disrupts the air flow on that side, and manufacturing reverse swing that would not occur naturally as a result.Suspicion was raised in the away dressing room at the famous WACA ground when Australia overcame a three-hour rain delay on day five to pick off England’s remaining six wickets for an Ashes-sealing victory that evening.Only days after Australia’s skulduggery in Cape Town was exposed, leading to lengthy bans for captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, former England captain Alastair Cook revealed the hunch. David Warner has supported Khawaja’s claims, saying they are ‘100 per cent accurate’ Emphasising the huge differential in lateral movement achieved by the rival bowling attacks the previous winter, Cook said: ‘We did think in Perth, when the outfield was wet after the rain, how had they managed to get the ball reversing?‘I didn’t see anything, (but) we’ve been pretty good on the ball, managing the ball so that it can reverse swing at certain times. Jimmy (Anderson) is obviously very good at reverse swinging, we got it going a touch at Melbourne either way, but with those drop-in pitches we didn’t get it going massively.’Khawaja’s confirmation of the Australian dressing room culture follows Daily Mail Sport’s exclusive story in the aftermath of the Cape Town sting that David Warner had relayed tampering methods to England players over a drink at the end of the Ashes – an episode Cook personally reflected on in his own autobiography the following year.It emerged earlier this week that, according to Khawaja, Australia had used sandpaper at Port Elizabeth – in the Test match that preceded the powder keg Newlands contest.He also states in his book that the entire Australian team were in on the malpractice, not just the trio that were punished – a claim that Warner said was ‘100% accurate.’However, breaking the silence of the four bowlers who released a statement in 2021 denying prior knowledge of a foreign object being brought onto the field in Cape Town, Starc said his recollection of events had not changed.‘As far as our statement said, we weren’t aware of things being taken on the field, that’s where I’ll leave it,’ Starc said.‘We weren’t aware anything was taken on to the field to be tampered with. We saw (the sandpaper) on the big screen in Cape Town.‘As far as the book is concerned, I haven’t read it. I probably won’t read it. So that’s for Usman to elaborate on. I’ll stick to what I said five years ago, what I said at the time, eight years ago. Clearly, there’s different versions from different people, and I’ll leave it where I left it back then.’The revisiting of sandpapergate has left a significant proportion of the Australian public demanding another probe, after Warner slammed the original eight years ago as ‘rushed and botched.’However, Cricket Australia insisted it will not be reopening the investigation, with the organisation’s chief executive Todd Greenberg saying that there was not ‘any compelling reason’ to do so, despite Khawaja’s version of events contradicting previous ones to have made the public domain.Ex-Australia captain Michael Clarke is leading the calls to revisit the inquiry into a team whose reputation is arguably already irreparably damaged, saying fans have not been able to move on from it.‘They can’t trust what’s real. They don’t know the truth until this gets reopened and the truth comes out,’ Clarke told 2DayFM.‘Now we’ve got this opportunity. I would just like to see whatever the truth is for it all to come out, allow people to finally tell the truth, and move on.’While Smith and Warner were suspended for 12 months and lost their rights to leadership upon return and Bancroft – who was caught on camera trying to conceal the sandpaper in his trousers – was for nine months, no other Australian player or coaching staff member was censured.But Bancroft’s response to being asked, in a 2021 British newspaper interview, if the bowlers’ knew – ‘it’s probably self-explanatory – reopened the festering sore of Australia’s past and triggered the unusual joint statement from Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon.Now, courtesy of Khawaja’s determination for collective accountability, they face questions regarding their conduct in cricket’s most revered series of them all.