It was on Day 4 of the second test between India and England where it was seen England players while fielding were using spikes on their shoe on top of the ball. The video of two players- whose face was not captured in the footage-stamping the ball and rolling it on the ground with the spikes in their shoes. The video is posted on Twitter grabbed a lot of attention as people who saw it on Twitter made ‘ball tempering’ accusations on the England team. This incident took place on day 4 of the second test when Ollie Robinson was bowling in the 35th over of the innings.
Former Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Akash Chopra tweeted their concern “Yeh kya ho Raha hai (What is happening?) Is it ball-tampering by Eng ya Covid preventive measures,” tweeted Sehwag, while Chopra simply said: “Ball-tampering, eh?”
It was reported by PTI that no such development can be confirmed as no complaint was made by Indian team management to match referee Chris Board This issue has been escalated and the ball remains unchanged.
One of the England senior players and also the fast bowler Stuart Board who has been ruled out of this test series due to calf injury. He came to the defense of his teammates. As several users in Twitter questioned England integrity, Broad explained what might have happened
“My comments are – Woody (Mark Wood) tried to nutmeg Burnsy (Rory Burns) by tapping the ball through his legs (a very common occurrence) & he missed and kicked the ball there by accident. Instead of screenshotting the pic, watch the video – quite plain & easy to see,” Broad replied to a tweet from a user.
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Another user asked why the incident was taken seriously either by match referee or on on-field umpires, Broad said. “Depends If it was damaged? It is the same if it was hit into the stands. If it didn’t make a mark, why change it? “
But it didn’t have much impact on the match, as India had a better second session on Day 4 afternoon. Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara resume play at 56/3 in the second session. The pair scored at a very slow pace but made sure there were wicketless during the lunch session which put India in a much better situation by the end of the second session. India was 105/3 having a lead of 78 runs at Tea.
