For IPL 2025, bowlers have been permitted to use saliva to shine the ball again. Early signs point towards it being a positive move.
Ahead of the latest season, the league made two significant rule changes; one, bowlers were allowed to apply saliva on the ball once again – after the practice had been stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two, fielding teams could request a ball change in the second half of the second innings, in order to counter the effects of dew.
"The saliva rule, I haven't really thought that much about. If I think of it from a hygiene perspective, I think it's pretty digusting that we're all licking cricket balls," said RCB Director of Cricket Mo Bobat ahead of his side's game against Gujarat Titans, tongue firmly in cheek (at any rate, not on the cricket ball).
"But I can understand why bowlers like that. I always say that in this country, I don't view the saliva ban as that big an issue, because you do enough sweating. If you're playing cricket in England, you could do with a bit of saliva – you don't do much sweating with the temperature over there. So I'm not sure it has that much relevance here in India, but it certainly would do in England."
It is a sound explanation, but this begs the question as to why the likes of Mohammed Shami, Vernon Philander and Tim Southee felt sweat was not sufficient, and were insistent on saliva being allowed again. Philander's reasoning ran: "I do feel that it's difficult to control the amount of sweat you put on the ball, [especially when] you start sweating obviously heavily."
How does reverse swing happen?
The main reason seam bowlers shine the ball is to give themselves a chance to generate reverse swing with the older ball. The new cricket ball moves in the air thanks to a proud seam and smooth sides, but these both fade away as it is hit, and the game wears on.
Reverse swing is when the ball swings in the opposite direction to conventional, new ball, swing – and a significant component is the difference in smoothness between the two halves of the ball. If bowlers can keep one side smooth or shiny, and the other rougher and more "scuffed up", they can generate more movement with the older ball.
When the saliva ban was implemented in 2020, Shami explained that saliva keeps the ball harder and shinier, helping it cut through the air more effectively, while sweat makes it softer. Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh concurred, saying sweat can only make the ball shine when it is new, and is less effective when the ball is older.
The early indications from IPL 2025 are that the bowlers may have a point.
IPL 2025: Saliva helping bowlers generate reverse swing
Just shy of two weeks into the competition, it is too early to say anything conclusively. But a look at the data indicates the lifting of the ban has helped bowlers wrest back some control amid the recent brutality of batters.
Examining the degree of swing through the innings illustrates how the 2025 season has been different already. From 2022-2024, when bowlers were not allowed to apply saliva, movement through the air was minimal after the Powerplay, or even after the first three overs.
In 2025, the amount of movement through the first six overs has been largely the same, but there has been markedly more movement happening afterwards – up to 30 per cent more at the end of the first innings – at lengths fuller than 6m. Observe that at lengths shorter then 6m, the amount of swing across seasons and overs is minimal since the ball does not spend enough time in the air to move significantly.
The massive spike at the start of the second innings in IPL 2024 is also noteworthy. Possible explanations are wind and perhaps a sharper drop in air temperature, compared to other seasons, but that is an investigation for another day.
The usage of saliva this year, it would seem, has helped bowlers shine one side of the ball more effectively. The likes of Prince Yadav and Avesh Khan (both LSG) as well as Prasidh Krishna (GT) have been able to get the ball to reverse appreciably in the middle and end overs.
The reason a significant difference is not seen in the second innings could be because even slight dew setting in in evening games could make both sides of the ball damp, meaning reverse swing is more difficult to achieve.
In addition, if bowlers make use of the second rule change for this season, i.e. getting the ball replaced, they will naturally get one that hasn't been "worked on" (shined with saliva and/or sweat) through the first 10-11 overs of the innings – another factor working against reverse swing.
An obvious caveat to the numbers themselves is that bowlers are not always looking to swing the ball. Deliveries like cutters or back-of-the-hand slower balls are unlikely to swing, and if they bowl more of these, the amount of swing overall will naturally come down. Quick bowlers have been more willing this year to try out variations with the new ball, which could account for why the swing is far lower at the start of matches this year compared to the last two seasons.
However, in the second half of the innings, there is little to suggest there has been any major difference in the last four years – going off the range of speeds for quick bowlers.
There isn't enough to say this is solely down to the increased movement, or the saliva, but over the first quarter or so of this season, the IPL has hardly been the run-fest that many may have expected. SRH did score 286, and Punjab Kings 243, within the first four days of the competition, but the 200-run mark has been breached only thrice in the other 14 first innings.
There is time left in this year's IPL for this early trend to change. But as of now, it looks like the lifting of the saliva ban has gone some way towards balancing out the contest between bat and ball.
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