India's premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin feels putting saliva on the ball is a habit that will take some practice to get rid of it when cricket resumes in the post COVID-19 world.
The ICC Cricket Committee recommended a ban on use of saliva in its meeting earlier this week.
"I don't know (when is) the next time I go out there. It is natural for me to put saliva. It's going to take some practise (to not apply saliva). But I think, if we all have to co-exist, which is the DNA of human race, we will have to try and adapt to this," Ashwin said during an Instagram chat with Delhi Capitals.
Ashwin said that every player would be required to be mentally switched on as anything can happen going ahead.
"We are locked down as there is hope that we will return to some normalcy, we are all confined to our homes, we all have hope in future, we will have to anticipate what is coming ahead of us, we will be required to be mentally switched on as anything can happen," Ashwin said.
Talking about his carrom ball, Ashwin said it roughly took him four years to develop it.
"It's more about trying these variations and the disappointments you get with it. Imagine try to play carrom with your middle finger and you're trying to push a cricket ball of that weight that cannot be compressed and you are trying to push it with velocity and trying it to spin.
"It's no mean achievement. Your finger, body need to understand it so on and so forth," said the man who has taken 365 wickets in 71 Tests.
"For me, when I was trying this carrom ball, I was expecting it to get it right every day. But every day despite bowling hundreds of deliveries, I will return home with disappointment of not being able to achieve what I had set out to achieve.
"That was a very, very annoying state because you go through the practice and all with a dream in your head. But it does not pan out as quickly as you expected."
And then he tried reverse carrom.
"I tried the reverse carrom, which I bowl at will now. I have been trying the googly. All these things tested my patience. But I feel when it tests your patience is when you need to be extra hard working, extra rudimentary and extra confident of your skills."
The social distancing norms in the post COVID-19 world will be a throwback to the 70's and 80s when there were no exaggerated celebrations.
"If you watch those classic games of 1970 or 80s, wicket celebration was people use to stand away from each other and keep clapping, you never really had high five's and wrist pumps. It developed much later in the game."
On a pragmatic note, Ashwin said that COVID-19 is nature's way of showing that human race needs to respect Planet Earth.
"I probably think, this is the whole way the elephant in the room -- COVID19, is probably a lesson for humanity in the whole -- of trying to tell us ‘hey you know what, try and take a step back, you know you are stamping my feet all the time, you are spoiling nature, you are not listening to what is required, because humanity thrives’ -- our race is thrived because of what planet is.
"It is unfair how much we have inflicted damage on it, so I think that is an extension what the game should be like. We should also understand that we need to appreciate all these things, maintain a certain sense of decorum and dignity, probably," he said.
