Australia captain Aaron Finch said Adam Zampa was merely using hand-warmers in his pocket during the World Cup match against India, rejecting social media speculation that the leg-spinner might have been tampering with the ball. A few pictures of Zampa showed him putting his hand in his pocket just before a delivery and social media was abuzz with talk of ball tampering.
With the last year's scandal which led to bans on Steve Smith David Warner still casting a shadow on the Aussies, skipper Finch had to clarify after his team's 36-run loss to India.
"I haven't seen the photos, but I know that he has hand warmers in his pocket. He has them every single game he plays. I honestly haven't seen them, so I can't comment too much on it. But I know for a fact that he has hand warmers every game," Finch told mediapersons.
Zampa, who was a revelation on Australia's limited-overs tour of India, was taken to task by the Indian openers and was out of the attack after giving away 50 runs in six overs.
"I think he just started his spell poorly today, which gave them an opportunity to get on top of him, and when you're bowling to world-class players and they get on top of you early, it can be quite hard to come back," Finch defended the 27-year-old.
The fact that other bowlers couldn't get a breakthrough also affected his performance, felt Finch.
"He never had the chance to really bowl at a new batter a hell of a lot, which probably was the difference in the Indian series where we managed to get some wickets up front and there would be an opportunity that he could really go to work on a new batter," he explained.
Finch wants the India game to be treated as one bad day in office for Zampa.
"Today that just didn't happen, and as a leg-spinner, it's an incredibly tough craft. It's the hardest thing to do in the game. So you can forgive him for not having his best day out once every now and then.
"He's been exceptional for us for quite a long time now, since he's come back into the side. So yeah, I am not concerned about that."
