Can Do Away With High-fives & Hugs, Alternative For Saliva Ban Needed: Bumrah On Post COVID-19 Era Cricket

"I was not much of a hugger anyway! And not a high-five person as well, so that doesn't trouble me a lot. The only thing that interests me is the saliva bit," said Bumrah.

The International Cricket Council's recommendation of banning the usage of saliva for shinning the cricket ball as a preventive step in wake of the COVID-19 threat has evoked mixed responses amid the cricketers and the critics over the past few weeks. Expressing his thoughts on the burning subject of saliva ban which gives some indication about how the future of cricket will pan out, Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah opined that the International Cricket Council (ICC) must come with an alternative to saliva for bowlers as a means to shine the ball, once the sport resumes amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Bumrah said that he was not a big fan of body's hugs while celebrating his dismissals with his team mates but certainly felt that the ban on saliva usage might tilt the game further in favour of the batsmen. Speaking to Ian Bishop and Shaun Pollock on the ICC's video series Inside Out interviews, Bumrah said he is not troubled by the guidelines for celebrations during a cricket match. "I was not much of a hugger anyway! And not a high-five person as well, so that doesn't trouble me a lot. The only thing that interests me is the saliva bit," said Bumrah. "I don't know what guidelines we'll have to follow when we come back, but I feel there should be an alternative. If the ball is not well maintained, it's difficult for the bowlers. "The grounds are getting shorter and shorter, the wickets are becoming flatter and flatter. So we need something, some alternative for the bowlers to maintain the ball so that it can do something - maybe reverse in the end or conventional swing," he added. In the post-COVID era, the ICC came out with certain proposal to bring about a spree of changes in cricket amongst which one would be the ban on usage of saliva to shine the ball in order to prevent the possible transmission of novel coronavirus. The 26-year-old Bumrah has been part of a potent Indian bowling attack India's bowling attack over the past few seasons and was ranked the No.1 ODI bowler in the world for a considerable time frame before injury stalled his progress a bit.