Permanent saliva ban not a big deal, says Cummins

PTI, Mar 20, 2022, 4:05 PM IST

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Lahore: Australia Test skipper Pat Cummins says since the impact of precautionary prohibition on the use of saliva for shining the ball was not as huge as anticipated, a permanent ban on its usage will not be a ”big deal” for the seam bowlers.

Saliva application was barred by the ICC in view of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020.

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the custodian of cricket laws, recently imposed a complete ban on the use of saliva while announcing its amended 2022 code, which will come into effect in October this year.

The MCC reasoned that applying saliva had no impact on the ball’s movement, according to its research. ”I don’t think so (permanent saliva ban will hamper the performance of the swing bowlers),” Cummins, himself a pacer, told reporters ahead of Australia’s third Test against Pakistan.

”I don’t think it has made a huge effect, as big as we might have thought it would. We can still use sweat so it’s not too big a deal,” he added.

The MCC said that using saliva to shine the ball would be treated as an unfair practice.

Great that KKR have retained most of the squad 

Cummins, who had become the most expensive foreign buy in the Indian Premier League (IP) in 2019 when Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for a whopping Rs 15.50 crore, will turn out for the Kolkata-based outfit once again. ”Really excited. It’s been great that most of the squad has been able to keep together. So, most of the players and staff know really really well,” he said.

KKR has named Indian batter Shreyas Iyer as skipper and having shared the dressing room with him in the 2017 edition of the IPL, Cummins is looking forward to joining forces with him once again. ”Shreyas, I played with at Delhi(Daredevils), we got on really well. He seems like a very calm guy and seems in form at the moment.” ”I’m so excited to go over there, I have some close friends I will be playing alongside, can’t wait,” he added.

Kohli, Babar both really complete batters 

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who played a sensational 196-run knock against Australia in the second Test earlier this week, has often been compared to India batting veteran Virat Kohli, who has already established himself as one of the greats of the game.

Asked to compare the two, Cummins said, ”They are both really complete batters no matter what format you play, they present their challenges.” ”They are both really high quality (players), both have scored centuries against Australia over the years.” Talking about the similarities of the current top batters of the world including Kohli, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, England Test captain Joe Root, and Azam, Cummins said all of them are not easily flustered.

”All know their game incredibly well, They are never flustered, happy to bat long periods of time. If there is an opportunity, they get off the mark pretty quickly, start accumulating the runs really quickly. ”Unless you are right on the money from the first ball you feel like they are already into their innings,” he added.