The ICC Cricket Committee came up with its guidelines on the resumption of cricket amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the suggestions made was the ban on the usage of saliva to shine the ball.

Though many of the bowlers, present and past, have said that it will be difficult to change their ways, given that they have been suing saliva for most of their lives to keep the ball shining, England’s pacer Chris Woakes feels it’s time to find alternate ways to keep the ball’s shine.

“Moving forward you're going to have remind yourself that you can't use those things to shine the ball. Don't get me wrong, you can shine the ball without saliva and sweat, it probably just doesn't have the same effect. You might have to work a little bit harder on rubbing on the trousers,” 31-year-old Woakes said to Wisden.

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The 31-year-old said the bowlers' job will become harder without the use of saliva on the ball.

"We will find ways to shine the ball, whether that's being a little bit more aggressive on the shining side of things. I'm sure we will find a way of getting some shine into that ball and making sure it does move off the straight," he added.

The right-arm seamer who resumed his training outside, said that thankfully he will be working with the Dukes ball this summer, given its more prominent seam as compared to the Kookaburra.

"I think, luckily enough the ball moves around in England anyway. You don't always have to overly work hard on the ball, so hopefully that'll work in our favor a bit. Thankfully it's a Dukes and not a Kooka this summer because then we would be struggling,” Woakes mentioned.

"The Dukes always gives you a little bit of something as a bowler so hopefully that can continue from my point of view. In regards to the shining of the ball, in England generally you will get a little bit of seam movement. Effectively, it doesn't really matter if you shine the ball or not," he said.

(PTI inputs)