Indian pacer and Gujarat Titans' new recruit, Mohammed Siraj has backed the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decision to revoke the ban on saliva usage on the cricket ball.
"It’s very good for bowlers. It's excellent news for us bowlers because when the ball is not doing anything, applying saliva on the ball will increase the chances of finding some reverse swing," Siraj said as quoted by PTI.
The speedster highlighted how the saliva usage will help in ball getting to reverse. "It sometimes aids reverse swing because scrubbing the ball against the shirt will not help (to get reverse swing). But using saliva on the ball will help in maintaining (the shine on one side), and it is important," he added.
Siraj, who was earlier part of RCB, is excited to be in Gujarat Titans' setup and is looking ahead to playing under Shubman Gill.
"It’s a good feeling to join Gujarat ahead of the new season. Yeah, it was a bit emotional for me to leave RCB because Virat bhai had supported me a lot in tough times, but we have a fantastic team here under Gill.
"If you talk about Gill, then he is a bowler’s captain. He never tries to stop you from trying something new or hinder your plans. We have made our Test debut together (vs Australia in 2020) and we share a very good personal rapport too," he said.
GT have star and experienced bowlers in Kagiso Rabada, Rashid Khan and Ishant Sharma in the team and Siraj is happy to be in company with them. "It is actually a great thing because it is such an experienced line-up and will foster some healthy competition, which is good for the team. These bowlers do not require much guidance and they know their plans.
"So in that sense, it's a blessing to have such bowlers in a competition like IPL because we have all kinds of bowlers, who have ticked all the right areas," said Siraj.