‘100 per cent…’: DC’s Mohit Sharma on saliva ban revocation helping in reverse swing

NEW DELHI: Ahead of his side’s Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against Rajasthan Royals (RR), Delhi Capitals (DC) pacer Mohit Sharma backed the revocation of the saliva ban for the competition, saying that it has helped in ball reverse swinging.

After their four-match win streak broke with a loss to five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI), the second-placed DC will be hosting an eighth-placed Rajasthan, who has secured just two wins in six matches, at Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of the match in the pre-match presser, Mohit talked about the saliva ban revocation and if it is making any difference for bowlers, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo “100 per cent. In 70 per cent of the games, the ball is tailing in and it is only because the saliva is heavy, and our sweat is not so heavy. If the ball is heavier on one side it will tail in. Right now, there is not as much dew in most grounds to say that the wet ball is also reverse swing.”

The removal of the saliva ban, introduced as a COVID-19 precautionary measure, was one of the major rule changes introduced ahead of the tournament. The rule against using saliva was introduced in May 2020 as a temporary measure, but the ICC made it permanent in September 2022 across all forms of the game.

Mohit also gave his take on on-field umpires checking the dimensions of bats when batters come to bat. This is done usually in the dressing room, but as of late, on Sunday during the double-header, the bats of several players such as Shimron Hetmyer, Phil Salt, Riyan Parag and Nitish Rana in Jaipur and Hardik Pandya in Delhi, were done on the field by the umpires during Rajasthan Royals-Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals-Mumbai Indians clashes.

All the bats went through the gauge, through which they must pass and bats were deemed acceptable to use. Mohit gave a hilarious take on the issue, jokingly saying, “That is really good, please check those bats. As it is we have been seeing such big sixes. If a bat or two are caught oversized then ban them also.”

Squads:

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Nitish Rana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Kumar Kartikeya, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Madhwal, Kwena Maphaka, Ashok Sharma, Vaibhav Suryavanshi

Delhi Capitals Squad: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul(w), Axar Patel(c), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Sameer Rizvi, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan Ferreira, Dushmantha Chameera, Faf du Plessis, T Natarajan, Ajay Jadav Mandal, Tripurana Vijay, Manvanth Kumar L, Madhav Tiwari. (ANI)