Ben Stokes applies saliva on ball; spoken to by umpires

England all-rounder Ben Stokes was seen making use of saliva on the ball on the opening day of the day-night third Test in opposition to India right here on Wednesday, following which the ball needed to be sanitised.
The incident happened on the finish of the twelfth over when Stokes was seen utilizing saliva to shine the ball, prompting umpire Nitin Menon to have a chat with him. The ball was subsequently sanitised.

Umpire warns Ben Stokes as a result of he’s placing Saliva on the ball. pic.twitter.com/6utiAjw9oA
— CricketMAN2 (@man4_cricket) February 24, 2021

Cricket within the #COVID19 period! Umpire sanitising the ball after Ben Stokes used saliva. The subsequent time somebody does so, the batting workforce will get 5 runs.#INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/cuwPxPoxK8
— Samanway Banerjee (@qriosam) February 24, 2021
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had banned the usage of saliva to shine the ball because of the COVID-19 pandemic in June final 12 months.
As per the ICC’s COVID-19 laws, a workforce might be issued as much as two warnings per innings however repeated use of saliva on the ball will end in a 5-run penalty to the batting facet.
Whenever saliva is utilized to the ball, the umpires have to scrub it earlier than play recommences.