The Cricketing fraternity has been constantly debating over the use of sweat or saliva to shine the ball after the Corona pandemic. Shining the ball is an integral part of Test cricket as it helps the bowlers to swing the ball both ways. It is a traditional practice for the bowlers to use saliva to shine the ball. However, the practice is unsafe now as the CoronaVirus spreads through the medium of spits and droplets. India’s left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat believes that it won’t have that significant of an effect in terms of affecting the swing on the ball.
Australia pacers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are confident in saying that taking away swing will reduce a bowlers efficiency and take away their advantage in Test cricket. However, Unadkat reckons the ball will more or less behave the same in white-ball cricket.
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“I think the white ball won’t be a problem as a whole. Even in ODIs, you will be using two new balls 25 overs each. Reverse swing has never been a big factor in white-ball cricket. Even the new ball doesn’t require any sweat or saliva as far as the white ball is concerned,” Unadkat said.
“White lacquer remains shiny even if you just rub it on your trousers while for red ball, the red lacquer and the red leather demands that we shine it more with saliva and sweat. If we are starting with white-ball contests, we will surely have an advantage as saliva and sweat are as big a factor as it could be in red-ball cricket. If we start closed doors, then probably certain precautions will be mandatory,” he added.
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Unadkat would be happy with the forced break he has received from IPL this season. The left-arm quick has recently finished a tiring long Ranji Trophy Campaign. It was a memorable domestic season for UNadkat who scalped a stunning amount of 65 wickets during the Ranji Trophy season.
“To be honest, the big break evens out a lot of things as far as team selection is concerned. A lot will depend on can carry the form through the break and who can come out sooner. You can’t really judge now as you don’t know how big the break will be. Even if I don’t get match time sooner, if we get practice time sooner, it won’t take much time to get back the rhythm,” he said.
