'Someone will have to change his run-up routine' - Sachin Tendulkar's hilarious dig at Lasith Malinga after saliva ban

In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, the ICC has issued new guidelines banning the usage of saliva to shine the ball. This has already left the bowlers bemused who are habitual of using saliva all these years to gain advantage. But the former India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has identified a unique problem Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga will face once he will be back on the field in the near future.

Malinga, Sri Lanka’s T20I captain, has a habit of kissing the ball every time he loads his run-up during the match. He has been doing it over the years while bamboozling the opposition batsmen to the tune of his tricks. But with the fear of contracting COVID-19, the fast bowler will have to stop doing it when the island nation’s cricket resumes.

Sachin Tendulkar pointed out the same and took a funny dig at his former Mumbai Indians (MI) teammate in a tweet on Tuesday evening. He felt that Malinga will have to change his run-up routine posting a picture of the bowler kissing the ball.

“A certain someone will have to also change his run up routine with the new @icc rules! What say Mali?” his tweet read. It will be interesting to see if Malinga responds to the master blaster as both share a lot of respect and camaraderie for each other.

Here’s Sachin’s tweet:

India-Sri Lanka series in August?

As far as international cricket resuming in Asia is concerned, it looks a far-fetched dream as of now. Sri Lanka were supposed to play a bilateral series at home against India and the SLC approached the BCCI over the same as well. But the latter board decided not to travel with the cases still increasing in the country. However, both BCCI and SLC are still hopeful of the tour going ahead in August depending upon the situation then.

Meanwhile, cricket is set to resume in Sri Lanka from June 25 with a PDC T10 League which will see some of the prominent cricketers in the country taking part in the tournament. It will go on until July 6 when the final is scheduled to take place.