We have all heard how pacers from all around the world are worried about the ban on using saliva to shine the ball. But what about the spinners? Will they be affected by this restriction when cricket resumes in a Covid-19-hit world?

Former England spinner Monty Panesar feels the new directive may not affect the tweakers much because for them, it’s the seam, and not the shine, that is more important.

“For the spinners, it’s about the seam. The spinners generally use the seam to get the ball to drift. And to speak of the wrist spinners, they are always going to be in the game whether it’s turning or not. The turn depends on the weather, especially if it’s drier,” the left-armer, who played 50 Tests, 26 ODIs and a T20I, told The Telegraph from London.

Panesar expects some alternative substance to come into play to allow the cricketers to continue shining the ball.

“The ball could start reversing quickly for pacers as it gets rough quicker. However, I do feel that going forward one may just see petroleum jelly or something similar being allowed in order to make sure it doesn’t become all too favourable for the batsmen,” he added.

Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla, however, were blunt in their observation that maintaining the shine of the ball without saliva will be a pretty difficult job and that will affect the spinners as well.

“It’s difficult for bowlers because we are used to applying saliva for so many years and all of a sudden if we have to stop that, it will really be tough.

“You do need saliva to shine the ball so that it swerves in the air, as the density of the saliva is heavier than the sweat. So obviously, that makes a difference,” leg-spinner Chawla, the most expensive buy (after being picked up for Rs 6.75 crore by Chennai Super Kings) during last December’s IPL players’ auction, said.

According to Harbhajan, the spinners who rely mostly on the shine of the ball will face the most problems.

“The spinners who use the shine to get the ball to dip and swerve in the air will face problems because you can’t do so with sweat.

“The ball shines with the help of sweat only till it has the glaze. The moment the glaze is gone, sweat will not be able to do anything because it can only make the ball heavier. The ball will also reach the batsmen quicker,” the off-spinner explained.

Elaborating on how tough and challenging the new guideline could be for spinners, Harbhajan added: “Ever since we started playing cricket, our hands have automatically reached our mouths whenever we had the ball and we applied saliva to shine it. Anyone who plays with the hard ball does it.

“This (applying saliva) is almost like a basic principle of cricket and if you all of a sudden ask players to do away with that and expect them to remember that during a game, that’s always difficult. There could be incidents where a player may have put his hand in his mouth just like that and then, when he holds the ball, the saliva passes on to it. How do you control that?

“You can’t surely play with bandage on your hands so that you don’t put them in your mouth. It’s going to be quite challenging.”

But how do bowlers adjust then?

Getting used to the new way through more practice is crucial, suggest Harbhajan and Chawla.

Panesar, citing the examples of Wasim Akram and Roger Bannister (British middle-distance athlete who ran the first sub-4-minute mile in May 1954), said that the no-saliva guideline presents spinners with a challenge to evolve and come out stronger.

“It’s also going to test the bowlers as to how well they can move the ball off the pitch without the help of saliva. Look at Akram. He made perfect use of his skills to be a top bowler. So this is a chance for the bowlers to become more skilful,” Panesar said.

“After Roger Bannister accomplished what was then thought to be almost impossible, his record was broken very soon. Later many others did what he could. That’s how evolution works,” Panesar added.

Former India and Bengal left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, meanwhile, feels taking saliva away from a spinner is like taking a new bat away from a batsman.

'Well, you do need saliva not just for shine, but also to get the ball to drift. But if you take that away from a bowler, it's like taking a new bat away from a batsman.

'It now becomes increasingly difficult for spinners and other bowlers as in any case, the game was far more in favour of batsmen and now it could become heavily loaded in their favour. It's going to be a big disadvantage for bowlers.

'But you got to accept the rules as this will be the new normal because of the pandemic,' Ojha said.