IPL 2025: BCCI lifts the ban on using saliva on the ball. How will it benefit bowlers, and what could be its long-term impact?
The much-anticipated moment has arrived, the first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 is set to be played on Saturday, March 22 at the iconic Eden Gardens. This season promises to be unlike any other, with a slew of rule changes already sparking plenty of buzz.
Among the most talked-about changes are the reintroduction of saliva for ball shining and the debut of a second ball for the evening innings. The removal of the saliva ban in the IPL 2025 is expected to assist bowlers by enhancing their ability to generate swing, a critical skill in cricket that can make the ball more unpredictable and challenging for batters.
The IPL decided following a meeting on Thursday at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, where the majority of franchise captains advocated for the change. According to ESPNcricinfo, several captains expressed that the saliva ban, implemented by the ICC and adopted by member boards globally, was negatively impacting bowlers, particularly by hindering reverse swing.
How does applying saliva on the ball help the bowlers?
Bowlers, especially pacers, use saliva to polish one side of the ball while allowing the other side to remain rough. This creates an aerodynamic imbalance: the shiny side experiences less air resistance, while the rough side encounters more drag. As a result, the ball swings in the air, deviating from a straight path and making it harder for batters to anticipate its trajectory. Saliva is particularly effective because it helps maintain the ball’s shine longer and can penetrate the leather surface more efficiently than sweat alone, especially as the ball ages during a match.
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Why was Saliva banned?
The saliva ban was introduced in May 2020 by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as a temporary measure during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce virus transmission risks and was made permanent in September 2022. During this period, bowlers were limited to using sweat, which many argued was less effective for shining the ball and generating swing, particularly reverse swing, a type of swing that occurs with an older ball and moves in the opposite direction to conventional swing. Reverse swing has become rare in white-ball cricket like T20, partly due to the ban and the use of two balls in some formats, which keeps the ball newer and less prone to deterioration.
Will it help bowlers in IPL 2025?
With the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) lifting the saliva ban for IPL 2025, bowlers regain a tool to manipulate the ball’s condition more effectively. This could level the playing field in a format often seen as batter-dominated due to flat pitches, short boundaries, and high-scoring games (e.g., multiple 250+ totals in IPL 2024).
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There have been 10 instances of scores exceeding 250 across all IPL seasons. Only two of these occurred before 2024: Royal Challengers Bengaluru posted an impressive 263/5 in 2013, and Lucknow Super Giants scored 257/5 in 2023. However, the 2024 season saw a remarkable surge, with eight such high-scoring feats, three of which were achieved by Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kolkata Knight Riders also contributed to this trend with two of these massive totals. According to several cricket enthusiasts, the steep rise in high scores can be attributed to the lack of strength in the death bowling, with reverse swing not coming into play.
Fast bowlers, in particular, stand to benefit, as saliva can help them achieve both conventional swing early in the innings and reverse swing later, especially in the slog overs when the ball is older. Players like Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami have welcomed this change, noting it could “bring reverse swing back into the game and make it more interesting,” as Shami stated during the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
However, the impact might be tempered in T20 cricket compared to longer formats like Test matches. The shorter duration of IPL matches (20 overs per side) and batter-friendly conditions mean swing alone may not drastically shift the balance unless conditions (e.g., humidity or wind) and bowler skill align. Still, it offers bowlers an edge, potentially making contests between bat and ball more even. Former cricketer Atul Wassan also noted that saliva could alter the ball’s weight, aiding reverse swing in the death overs and creating “difficulty for batters.”
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