England all-rounder Ben Stokes received a warning from the on-field umpire after the former was caught applying saliva on ball during the second One-day international (ODI) between India and England in Pune. The incident happened in the fourth over of the Indian innings.

Reece Topley before dismissing India opener Shikhar Dhawan cheaply, bowled a dot ball, putting pressure on the Indian batsmen. Topley bowled a length ball outside off, Dhawan threw his bat at it, looking to cut but got beat. Stokes collected the ball and inadvertently applied saliva on the ball before passing the ball to his teammate. Umpire Virender Sharma was quick to take notice and warned not only Stokes but also stand-in captain Jos Buttler.

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Applying saliva has been banned by the ICC after matches resumed post COVID-19 forced break.

As per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), the ball was sanitized before proceedings resumed.

India, leading the three-match series 1-0, was invited to bat by the visitors. The hosts, aiming to seal the series, could not get off to a solid start ad Rohit Sharma and Dhawan took the long walk back very early in the innings.

This is also not the first time Stokes was warned for applying saliva on the ball. He had done the same thing on Day 1 of the pink-ball Test between India and England in Ahmedabad earlier.

Since Shreyas Iyer is out of the team due to an injury, Rishabh Pant was included in the playing XI. “We wanted to bat first again. Conditions play a big part, soft outfield again, just getting runs on the board in the last game really helped us out. We always felt we were in the game. That’s what development of a team is all about. If you want to perform anywhere in the world against your wishes, then you have to be ready to do whatever happens at the toss. That’s why we wanted to put ourselves in a similar position again even if we won the toss,” Virat Kohli said after the toss.”

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India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli(c), KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna

England (Playing XI): Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Dawid Malan, Jos Buttler(w/c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley