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World Test Championship final: Ball will swing even without saliva, says Ishant Sharma

Senior India speedster Ishant Sharma believes that the ball will swing even without saliva during the World Test Championship final against New Zealand here and somebody from the team will need to maintain it through the match starting June 18. "I think the ball will swing even without saliva and somebody needs to take responsibility to maintain the ball," Sharma …

WTC final: Ball will swing even without saliva, says Ishant Sharma

WTC final: ball will swing even without saliva, says Ishant Sharma

Brett Lee reckons Australia’s pace trio would hold the key during the year-end home Test series against India and is keen to figure out how much the Kookaburra ball swings without saliva Down Under. With the ban on saliva due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the former Australia speedster wants the custodians of the game to come up with an “artificial …

Forget reverse swing for now, using moisture-laden track could help: Irfan Pathan

If the bio-secure first Test between England and the West Indies is any indicator then fast bowlers across the globe should forget about reverse swing for the time being, feels former India pacer Irfan Pathan. For another India veteran Ashish Nehra, Jimmy Anderson consistently bowling short of length was an indicator that even conventional swing was bit of a problem …

Swing

Left-arm pacer Junaid Khan feels Pakistan bowlers are likely to struggle more due to the saliva ban than their English counterparts when the two teams lock horns in a series involving three Tests and as many T20Is in August. Junaid, who isn't part of the 29-member Pakistan squad, stated England bowlers' reliance on reverse swing is less in comparison to …

Reverse Swing

Senior India speedster Ishant Sharma believes that the ban on saliva to shine the ball will make things easy for batsmen and it needs to be ensured that the competition remains fair. Ishant, who has played 97 Tests, reasoned that if the bowlers don’t shine the red ball, used in the longest format of the game, then it won’t swing …

It’s not just the pacers who will be at disadvantage due to the ban on use of saliva but spinners too will suffer as they won’t get the required drift during middle overs, feels India’s top wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. “When you use a natural element like saliva, it helps pacers with swing and spinners with the drift,” Chahal told ESPNCricinfo, …

Anderson has mastered the art of swing bowling, taking 584 wickets — more than any other paceman and behind only three spinners in Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble on the test list — in a 17-year international career At 37 and in the twilight of his cricketing career, Jimmy Anderson isn’t too old to learn new tricks. “So …

Pakistan great Wasim Akram feels bowlers would become “robots” after the International Cricket Council approved the Anil Kumble-led Cricket Committee's recommendation to ban the act of shining the ball with saliva as a precaution for the COVID-19 pandemic. “It will make bowlers robots, coming and bowling without swing,” Akram told news agency AFP on Wednesday, also adding that they would …

The perceived loss of swing in the wake of ICC Cricket Committee’s temporary recommendation to prohibit the use of saliva to polish the ball and not allow any artificial material as a substitute has divided opinion sharply. This way I won’t have to do much,” said Paras Anand, Director of SG company that supplies balls for Ranji Trophy and Test …

Indian speedster Mohammed Shami on Tuesday said he can still get the ball to reverse swing even after the proposed ban of use of saliva, provided the shine is properly maintained. Now because of COVID-19 pandemic, it’s very important to stop using saliva,” said Shami, whose mastery over the reverse swing has been one of the big plus for India's …