Former Indian cricket team fast bowler Praveen Kumar said that ball-tampering used to be a common practice among players and added that Pakistan bowlers used to do it a bit more than others to boost their reverse swing. Reverse swing emerged as a formidable weapon for fast bowlers in the 1990s and Pakistan fast bowlers were considered to be experts of the skill. In an interview with Lallantop, Praveen said that players used to scratch the ball from one side to make it reverse swing but added that even after tampering, one needs the skill to use the reverse swing properly in their bowling.
"Everyone does a little bit; they (Pakistan bowlers) do it a bit more. That's what I've heard. Now, there are cameras everywhere. Earlier, everyone used to do it. And everyone knows as well. They would scratch it from one side. But you need to know how to use that skill, too. If I scratch the ball and give to someone, one will need to have the skills to reverse-swing it. One has to learn that," Praveen said in the interview.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli on Sunday made a high-profile comeback to India's T20 squad for the three homes against Afghanistan with the former also named captain for the series beginning in Mohali on January 11.
Rohit and Kohli last appeared in a T20 for India in the World Cup semifinal against England in November 2022.
Back then, the two veterans along with KL Rahul were seen to be playing archaic cricket in the powerplay and the team needed to move on from that approach with Hardik Pandya earmarked as the new T20 skipper.
However, Pandya's own injury in the ODI World Cup along and more recently, Suryakumar Yadav's ligament tear, resulted in a lot of inexperience at the top of the order.
(With PTI inputs)
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